There’s an invisible layer of air in the sky that can have significant impacts on communities and industries across Australia. This unseen phenomenon is called a temperature inversion and you could be standing in one right now without even realising it. What is a temperature inversion? The air near the ground is usually warmer […]
Australia’s northern fire season is expected to be more active than usual in some areas, thanks to an abundance of dry vegetation in the wake of a failed wet season. Northern Australia’s fire danger typically increases as vegetation loses moisture during the dry season, which runs from May to October. This year, some areas […]
Renewable energy is fast becoming a major source of energy across Australia and this revolution is affecting the mining industry. Energy is one of the biggest expenses for mining companies. This is being compounded by the current cost and volatility of energy amid the surging price of gas and a complex mix of international […]
Unseasonably heavy rainfall is set to continue across parts of the Pilbara and Kimberley during the next 48 hours as a low pressure system sits off the northwest coast of WA. The map below shows a thick northwest cloudband engulfing WA on Monday morning. This cloudband and the associated low have brought widespread […]
Heavy rain will soak parts of WA’s Pilbara and Interior over the next two to three days, bringing a risk of flooding for the second time in one week. A deepening low pressure trough being fed with a stream of tropical moisture caused a cloudband to develop over northwestern Australia on Tuesday morning. Rain […]
A month’s worth of rain has fallen in parts of the west Pilbara during the last 24 hours as a rainband from the Indian Ocean sweeps over northwestern Australia. Moisture from Ex-Tropical Cyclone Karim interacting with a strong cold front caused a thuck band of rain-bearing cloud to drift over the Gascoyne and western […]
A burst of late-wet season rain has inundated parts of northern and central QLD, with some areas picking up more than 700 mm of rain over the past five days. Image: Observed rainfall anomalies between October 2021 and March 2022. Source: Bureau of Meteorology. Northern Australia’s wet season runs from October to April. By […]
Heavy rainfall and flooding at a mine site or associated railways or roads can shut down operations for days, costing the business economically. Within the mine site, heavy rain can damage the haul roads used by dump trucks on a daily basis as part of standard operations. In some cases, this can become unsafe and […]
During this year’s prolific rainfall and catastrophic flooding events, Weatherzone supported the insurance sector and helped minimise the impacts to their business. Weather affects the insurance business at all levels of operation, from risk assessment to sales and claim management. For this reason, a sound understanding of short and long-term weather risks is an […]
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 […]
