After a hot and humid Saturday, severe thunderstorms in the form of a squall line rolled through Sydney, bringing gusty winds, heavy rain and even some small hail. Sydney’s western suburbs sweltered in temperatures mostly between 36°c and 38°c on Saturday afternoon. Sea breezes made the temperature a little more bearable closer to the coast, […]
A broad mass of very hot air is sweeping across Australia this week, causing a heatwave in part of every state and territory and sending temperature towards 40ºC in at least two capital cities. The image below shows the forecast maximum temperatures over Australia today, Thursday, February 16. The big pool of pink shading represents […]
A positive Indian Ocean Dipole may be brewing this year, that would lead to a dry winter and spring in 2023. But how much faith should we have in this forecast? The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is a similar climate driver to El Niño and La Niña in the Pacific Ocean. It is based […]
Several large fires continue to burn across southern Qld today, creating smoke plumes so large that they can be seen by satellites sitting more than 35,000 km above Earth’s surface. A wet spring followed by an unusually dry start to summer has caused a build-up of dry vegetation over the southeast inland of Qld […]
A late-summer heatwave will touch part of every state and territory in Australia this week as heavy tropical rain causes flooding in parts of Qld and the NT. A relatively stagnant weather pattern will cause two distinct types of weather in Australia this week. In the north there will be lots of cloud and rain […]
Norfolk Island just endured a direct hit from a category 2 tropical cyclone but barely had winds reach the strength of a category 1 system. So how did they escape the worst and how lucky was it? What weather did they receive? Norfolk Island recorded a maximum wind gust of 102km/h, typical of a category […]
Australia saw its warmest sea surface temperatures on record in 2022, with an annual average sea surface temp that was 0.80°C above the long-term (1961 to 1990) average. What’s remarkable about the 2022 sea surface temperatures (SSTs) is that: They were very much higher than average around almost the entire Australian coastline for the year […]
Tropical cyclones and heatwaves are both Australian summer staples, but did you know that a tropical cyclone can lead to a heatwave? A heatwave in Australia, but particularly for the southeast, is often triggered by a special kind of high pressure system called a ‘blocking’ high. Blocking highs are high pressure systems that have […]
Tropical cyclones are one of the most powerful weather systems on Earth, with top-tier cyclones producing wind gusts in excess of 300 km/h, torrential rain and dangerous storm surges. But what is it like to be in the direct path of a landfalling tropical cyclone and how strong can they get? All tropical cyclones in […]
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 […]
