Another burst of record-challenging early-season heat will sweep through Sydney in the opening days of October, with temperatures tipped to reach the high thirties in some suburbs on Sunday. A large mass of hot air that is currently building over central and western Australia will drift towards Australia’s east coast from this weekend, ahead […]
A positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event is gaining strength to the northwest of Australia, increasing the risk of hot and dry weather and fires in the coming months. What is the IOD? The IOD is an index that measures the difference in sea surface temperature anomalies between the western and eastern sides of the […]
Hailstorms are one of Australia’s most costly natural disasters. New research suggests that they are becoming more frequent in some of Australia’s cities. What is hail? Hailstones are made of layers of ice which form in thunderstorm updraughts. Hailstones grow larger by colliding with other rain droplets and ice particles in the updraft, until they […]
Spring has kicked off with a sweltering heatwave in Australia, with the mercury soaring well above average in many states and territories this week. So, is this abnormal early-season heatwave a sign of what’s to come this summer? What is a heatwave? In Australia, a heatwave is defined as three or more days of unusually high […]
The Bureau of Meteorology has today declared the arrival of El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), a climate driver double-up that significantly increases the likelihood of unusually warm and dry weather across large areas of Australia in the second half of 2023. The Bureau made the El Niño and positive IOD declarations […]
Scientists are developing a new way to classify El Niño in a warming climate as rising ocean temperatures make existing methods less effective. This research, led by a team of international scientists, may even shed light on why the atmosphere has struggled to respond to this year’s developing El Niño. Warm, warm water in […]
Northern Australia’s wet season is about to begin, with relentless humidity and heat, regular storm activity, monsoonal rains, and possible cyclone activity on the horizon. So, when will this year’s wet season arrive? Northern Australia’s wet season officially runs from October to April. The first few months are called the build-up, when moisture builds […]
An outbreak of early-spring thunderstorms has caused prolific lightning over Australia’s southeastern states during the last 24 hours. The animation below shows lightning spreading across central and southeastern Australia on Thursday and Friday morning. These storms were triggered by a large pool of cold air from the Southern Ocean clashing with much warmer air […]
Australia just had its warmest winter in more than a century of records with lean snow cover and prolific lightning rounding out an almost unrecognisable season. Australia’s national mean temperature in winter 2023 was 16.73ºC, which is 1.53ºC above the 1961-1990 average. This was the country’s highest mean winter temperature in records dating back to […]
Australia’s tropical cyclone season is officially underway, but we may not see much activity for few months yet. The season runs from November to April, and for mining operators and businesses across northern Australia, 2026-27 is shaping up to be a season where the headline numbers and the real risk may not line up. On […]
A positive Indian Ocean Dipole is underway, but this one is unlikely to deliver the textbook dry spring and summer that businesses have come to expect from the pattern. The Bureau of Meteorology officially declared a positive IOD on Tuesday, October 27, which typically like El Niño can cause drier and warmer conditions over parts of […]
Waters off Indonesia have cooled in recent weeks, an indication that a positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event could be developing. It’s an important climate driver for Australia, and it could shape rainfall and temperatures heading into summer, with flow-on effects for farmers, energy and other industries. What is the Indian Ocean Dipole? The IOD […]
Leonora, WA, had its wettest September day on record earlier this month. Three weeks later, more than 1.3 million lightning pulses were detected within 800 km of the town in 48 hours. Why is a stalled trough delivering storms to mining country, and what it could mean for operations? The DTN Total Lightning Network detected […]
