The 2019-20 ‘Black Summer’ bushfire season was catastrophic for parts of eastern Australian and the worst fire season NSW has recorded. Now, with more hot and dry weather forecast this spring and summer, some people may be wondering if this fire season will be as bad as the 2019-20 Black Summer. What conditions contribute […]
After a month in which the record for the Earth’s hottest day was shattered more than once, then the record for the Earth’s hottest week melted away, is it any surprise that July 2023 turned out to be the world’s hottest month on record? News came through overnight from the Copernicus Climate Change Service […]
Locals call it the “hair dryer”. It’s a strong, warm northwesterly wind that erodes the Aussie snowpack like a bushfire burns through forest. Normally you expect the hair dryer to show up in September, or if you’re unlucky, around late August. But this year, it’s already here on August 4. After an extremely warm July […]
Snow settled on the Stirling Range in WA on Thursday morning after a frigid polar air mass travelled from Antarctica to Australia. A long fetch of southerly winds has been blowing across the Southern Ocean during the past week, carrying polar air from the ice sheets of Antarctica into unusually low latitudes. On Thursday […]
A massive cold that slammed into WA on Wednesday will bring a burst of wind and rain to other areas of southern and southeastern Australia during the next 48 hours. Wind gusts exceeding 100km/h were recorded in parts of WA on Wednesday as a strong cold front hit the state’s southwest. Lancelin, to the […]
A wintry blast, with severe storms, potentially flooding rains, and bitterly cold temperatures are on its way to southwest WA, abruptly ending the region’s taste of spring on Tuesday. On Tuesday, the mercury was five to eight degrees above the August average, reaching 25°C in Perth and Esperance, and 28°C in Eucla. The state’s north saw […]
Tasmania and a few places on the Australian mainland just had their warmest July on record, while mid-winter rainfall was below average in much of southern Australia. The national mean temperature in July 2023 was 1.19ºC above the 1961-1990 average, making it the country’s 9th warmest July in records dating back to 1910. Image: […]
Tasmania has seen a wet and windy July, with cold front after cold front marching over the region filling hydropower dams in the region. The image below shows the last week of July was particularly wet for northwestern Tasmania, with several cold fronts smashing into the region. Over the last weekend, Maatsuyker Island recorded a […]
Temperatures plunged below -10ºC in northern NSW on Thursday morning as parts of eastern Australia experienced their coldest morning in years, and the coldest July morning in decades. A slim high pressure ridge wedged between two cold fronts caused clear skies and light winds over a broad area of eastern Australia on Wednesday night. This […]
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 […]
