THE present drought affecting eastern Australia and parts of SA has exceeded the Federation Drought, the WWII drought and the Millennium drought in terms of its severity through the Murray-Darling Basin, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
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"Our records only go back 120 years but in terms of the rainfall records it is the most severe," BoM climatologist David Jones said.
Dr Jones added temperatures were as high as they have been during the human era, saying the nearest equivalent according to paleo-climatic data (analysing historical weather trends) was a hot period encountered 2-3 million years ago.
"We are still below that threshold of a couple of million years ago but we are starting to approach it," Dr Jones said.
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