Last night, a line of severe thunderstorms built up in eastern South Australia and proceeded to run in a nearly unbroken line across inland New South Wales and northern Victoria. These storms were fast moving, getting across most of the state and affecting the Tablelands and ACT, including Canberra this morning. We have already […]
New South Wales is dealing with a transportation challenge with 256 main road closures from flooding present across the state. Image: Main road closures and incidents due to flooded roads in NSW. Source: Live Traffic NSW NSW has seen a lot of rain over the past year, and particularly over the last few months, thanks to back-to-back […]
The negative Indian Ocean Dipole, one of the main climate drivers that underpinned Australia’s second wettest October on record, is likely nearing its end. The Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) is an index that measures sea surface temperature anomalies in the tropical Indian Ocean. A negative IOD occurs when warmer-than-average water builds up to the northwest […]
The 2022-23 Australian tropical cyclone season has officially started, and all signs point towards an above average cyclone season in the Australian region over the next six months. The Australian cyclone season runs from November to April. During this six-month period, we usually see around 9 to 10 tropical cyclones forming inside Australia’s area of […]
A huge pool of cold Antarctic air is being hurled northwards by a deep low pressure system near Tasmania, and it’s going to make much of southeastern Australia feel as cold as the bitterest day in July. Strong cold fronts are not unknown outside of winter in our southern states, but this one really is […]
We’ve seen no shortage of places across the eastern half of Australia break their rainfall record this soggy October, and the nation’s capital is the latest. Weather records have been kept in Canberra since 1939, and the old record for the wettest October was 161 mm in 1976. To 9 am on Thursday morning, the […]
A hybrid cyclone looks set to form off the east coast of Victoria on Tuesday, producing heavy rain. But what is a hybrid cyclone and how difficult are they to forecast? The sequence of satellite images below shows two distinct low pressure systems affecting Australia on Monday. One low can be seen near the junction […]
The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) has become active over Australia – but what is the MJO and what does it mean? The MJO is an eastward-moving pulse of tropical activity. When it is active, it brings an increase in rainfall, thunderstorms and tropical cyclones to the region it is in. The MJO gets the […]
A heavy rainband will soak already sodden states in southeastern Australia during the middle of this week, with flooding likely in parts of Victoria and Tasmania. A cold front and associated low pressure trough interacting with a stream of tropical moisture will cause a band of thick cloud and rain to spread across southeastern […]
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 […]
