Australia’s west will be gripped by a severe to extreme heatwave during the remainder of this week, with temperatures set to exceed 40ºC in Perth and reach close to 50ºC in the Gascoyne. A stubborn ridge of high pressure located to the south of Australia will direct hot and dry air towards the west […]
The low pressure system formerly known as Tropical Cyclone Kirrily continues to cause heavy rain, thunderstorms and flooding over Australia’s eastern outback, more than 10 days after it made landfall. Tropical Cyclone Kirrily crossed Qld’s North Tropical Coast on the night of Thursday, January 25, making landfall as a category two system just north of […]
Australia just had its third-warmest and ninth-wettest January on record, which is a remarkable combination. Ordinarily, you would not expect both above-average temperatures and above-average rainfall to go hand in hand. Simply put, that’s because clouds block direct sunlight, preventing warming. For example, Australia’s hottest January on record fell in a scorching, sunny summer. That […]
Be grateful if you’re lucky enough to be working indoors in air conditioning for the rest of the working week in Perth, as temps are set to keep sizzling until the weekend. This Wednesday is day two of a four-day heatwave in western and southwestern WA, with Perth heading for a top of 39°C this […]
Was it really only yesterday that we were wondering where summer had gone in Melbourne? On Monday morning, we published a story about Melbourne’s relatively mild summer of 2023/2034 to date, in which we noted that: Average Melbourne maximums had been around half a degree below the long-term average in both December and January, although […]
A weather balloon has uncovered the record water vapour levels over Brisbane, as heavy rain pours over southeast Qld. The balloon was released on Monday night, measuring the atmospheric pressure, temperature, humidity and wind speed at different heights in the atmosphere. It found that the column above Brisbane airport contained 73.5mm of precipitable water, […]
Heavy and intense rainfall is forecast across southeast Qld in the next 72 hours, bringing hundreds of millimetres to the region. The satellite image below shows thick cloud over Qld and northeast NSW on Monday afternoon. Image: Himawarri-9 satellite image at 1pm AEST on Monday, January 29. A coastal trough is expected to […]
With Cyclone Kirrily set to make landfall around 11 pm just north of Townsville, and with a heatwave in the diagonally opposite corner of the state, there’s no shortage of dangerous weather in and around Queensland this Thursday. Temperatures were forecast to reach 49°C out at Birdsville in the southwest corner of the state, […]
Tropical Cyclone Kirrily was declared on Wednesday evening and will cross the Queensland coast on Thursday evening. The most likely time of landfall is around 8 pm AEST, although it could occur anytime between about 6 pm and midnight. The most likely location for landfall is just north of Townsville around Magnetic Island although the […]
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 […]
