Relentless rainfall has soaked already sodden areas of eastern NSW this week, leading to flooding, road and rail disruptions, and Sydney’s wettest August day in nearly two decades. A deep stream of moist easterly winds has cause rain to soak parts of NSW and southeast Queensland every day between Monday and Friday this week. Most […]
One of Australia’s key climate drivers is gaining strength over the Indian Ocean, firming up the odds of a wet spring for large parts of the country. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) refers to an index that measures the difference in sea surface temperature anomalies across the tropical Indian Ocean. It’s an index watched closely […]
A surge of monsoonal winds and rain across northern India will top up an already plentiful monsoon season. The Indian Southwest Monsoon to date The graph below shows the distribution of monsoonal rainfall across the Indian sub-continent since the start of June. Image: Daily and cumulative monsoonal rainfall across India’s four homogeneous regions since June […]
A vigorous cold front is unleashing wild wintry weather on the southwest corner of WA, with storms, heavy showers and strong wind gusts battering the region this Tuesday. The severe weather has so far stayed south of Perth as it pushes in from the Indian Ocean in a northwesterly stream – and indeed the WA […]
Increased fire danger across parts of northern Australia, including Darwin, comes with a surge of hot and dry winds from the interior. 75 days without rain The dry season is living up to its name for Darwin and the Northern Territory, with over 75 days since the last rain recorded in Darwin. This allows the […]
Severe thunderstorms producing heavy rain, large hail and lightning are impacting parts of Queensland and NSW on Thursday. Winter is a quiet time for thunderstorm activity in eastern Australia because there is less atmospheric instability and surface heating for the storms to develop compared to spring and summer. However, there are rare cases where all […]
Abnormally warm oceans surrounding Australia and a developing negative Indian Ocean Dipole will increase the likelihood of abnormally wet weather across large parts of the country this spring, along with an increased risk of flooding and severe thunderstorms disrupting businesses and industries. Spring in Australia runs for three months from the start of September to […]
Sydney’s soggiest August weekend in nearly three decades adds onto an already well above average month of rain as moist onshore winds stream into eastern NSW, with saturated grounds leaving NSW businesses and industries in a vulnerable position. Video: Radar imagery showing rainfall moving across the metropolitan region on Sunday, August 10, 2025. A moist […]
A powerful low pressure system off Australia’s East Coast in early August generated long period wave energy directed towards the coastline – some of which threaded under the Great Barrier Reef into Queensland’s Central Coast. Easterly gales wrapping around the system between Sunday and Tuesday were around 1,000 nautical miles away from Hay Point, a […]
El Niño–favourable conditions are gathering pace across the tropical Pacific, with key ocean indicators approaching threshold levels and early atmospheric responses emerging. While uncertainty remains around final El Niño strength, historical analogues show that even weak events can generate widespread impacts, including reduced rainfall, warmer daytime temperatures, increased frost risk, elevated fire danger, reduced tropical cyclone activity, and more. Industries including […]
Australia has just experienced a highly impactful tropical cyclone season, with more than 60% of systems reaching severe intensity, causing widespread disruption and damage to communities and multiple industries across northern Australia. The 2025–26 Australian tropical cyclone season officially ran from 1 November 2025 to 30 April 2026. During this six-month period, Australia saw 11 tropical cyclones, with nine […]
There are signs that a very strong, or ‘super’ El Niño could develop in the tropical Pacific Ocean later this year. So, what does this mean for Australia’s weather during the second half of 2026? El Niño on the horizon The tropical Pacific Ocean is currently in a neutral state, meaning neither El Niño nor […]
Intense heat from bushfires during elevated fire danger days can trigger fire-induced pyrocumulonimbus thunderstorms that ignite additional fires. In early January 2026, an extreme heatwave sweeping over southeastern Australia brought catastrophic fire danger to Victoria. Intensely hot bush and grass fires spread erratically and quickly in hot, dry and gusty winds, with pyrocumulonimbus generating lightning, […]
