Large areas of Australia have just experienced one of their warmest starts to winter on record as global air and ocean temperatures surge to unprecedented levels for this time of year. The first fortnight of winter 2023 has featured some unseasonably warm temperatures in Australia. The maps below show how daily maximum temperatures have compared […]
Rare outbreaks of thundersnow, inversion lightning, and even a squall line have all hit NSW in the past 24 hours, as an unusually active winter storm system sweeps over the state. Thundersnow A rare outbreak of thundersnow has developed over the Australian Alps on Tuesday afternoon, as a brief burst of heavy snowfalls was accompanied […]
El Niño and the typically drier-than-usual weather it brings across much of Australia is now officially one step closer after the BoM issued an El Niño Alert this Tuesday, June 6. “The Bureau’s *ENSO [El Niño Southern Oscillation] Outlook has been shifted to El Niño ALERT, indicating a 70% chance of El Niño forming this […]
Rain, and plenty of it, has drenched Perth overnight, in a welcome soaking for the WA capital. A total of 71.2 mm rain fell in the 24 hours to 9 am (AWST) Monday, most of it in a series of storms that lashed the WA capital not long after dark. That made it: The wettest […]
El Niño and a positive Indian Ocean Dipole could combine forces to cause abnormally warm and dry weather over large areas of Australia this winter. The meteorological winter in Australia runs from June 1 until August 31. These are typically Australia’s three coldest months of the year and a time for seasonal rain and snow […]
The final month of autumn has been exceptionally cold in eastern Australia, with parts of Sydney and Brisbane just registering one of their coldest Mays on record based on minimum temperatures. May is typically a time of cooling in eastern Australia as autumn draws to a close and wintry weather becomes more frequent. However, this […]
Satellites have spotted lava spilling down the side of Big Ben, one of only two active volcanoes located on Australian territory. The image below shows a clear view of Heard Island captured by a Sentinel-2 satellite on May 25, 2023. The stunning picture – a composite of visible and infrared satellite images – shows lava […]
Tropical Cyclone Mocha, which devastated Myanmar and Bangladesh earlier this month, may have set off a chain-reaction in the Indian Ocean Dipole that will lead to a hot, dry spring in Australia this year. Tropical Cyclone Mocha was a powerful system that formed in the northeastern Indian Ocean, over the Bay of Bengal, on May […]
Melbourne has just had its coldest six-day period in May for 42 years, with more cold weather to come. For six days straight between last Tuesday and Sunday, Melbourne’s maximum failed to exceed 15°C. That hasn’t happened since May 1981. The warmest day of the chilly six-day run was Saturday with a max of exactly […]
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 […]
