Worst Floods in 24 Years Hit Queenstown as Rain Sweeps North Queenstown, a popular town on New Zealand’s South Island, faced a drenching last week, leading to the swift evacuation of hundreds as waters rapidly rose. A slow-moving low-pressure system lingered over the South Island on Thursday and Friday causing a multi-day deluge in 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 […]
Light snow has fallen across Tasmania and the alpine areas of New South Wales and Victoria on a day when Victoria’s last ski resort (Falls Creek) closed, proving the weather gods have a cruel sense of humour. Snow was heaviest in Tasmania, with an accumulation of several centimetres at the tiny club-run ski field of […]
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 heatwave continues in New South Wales, with summer-like temperatures and summer-like fire danger. On Thursday morning, there were 68 bushfires burning, 17 of them uncontained, as dangerous winds pick up strength ahead of a southerly change due later on Wednesday. The NSW Rural Fire Service has declared a total fire ban in three regions: […]
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 […]
A record string of warm September days is in store for Melbourne, starting this Tuesday. While the record Melbourne maximum of 31.4°C is highly unlikely to be broken, Melbourne will likely see its longest September streak of days with a maximum temperature above 20°C. The current record for consecutive September days of 20°C or higher […]
A powerful cold front is approaching WA, and will generate a wild mix of record warmth, extreme fire danger, 100km/h winds, severe thunderstorms, and heavy rain across the state on Wednesday. Record heat Ahead of this front, heat has been building over WA over the last few days. Last night that heat produced the hottest […]
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 […]
