In a continent as drought-affected as Australia one should normally give thanks for rains. And indeed had this been during the El Nino effect, when the weather was much drier than usual, that would indeed be the case.

But we're currently under the influence of La Nina, which has been bringing extremely damp weather to the east coast in particular. As I write this, there is still extensive flooding in Queensland covering an area larger than France and Germany combined. The floods are showing signs of moving into northern New South Wales, with more rain still coming.

The knock-on effect may well be felt globally. Although Australia has produced a bumper wheat crop this year, it's estimated that late harvesting due to rains has cut the quality of it with some 30 to 40% being downgraded below milling standard compared with 5 to 10% in an average year. Add to that dry weather in Argentina (and, indeed in Western Australia where dry conditions during the growing season halved last year's crop) and potential crop losses in the United States, and some growers and analysts are expecting a significant shortage of milling wheat to loom with concomitant price rises for your average loaf of bread.

In Sydney we have had it mild in comparison. It's still been the coolest, wettest start to summer since 1940, but we haven't had any flooding of note. But with some rain day in and day out (and not even cooling rain, more like humidity-producing rain) this weather is getting as old as I've made this photo look.