The tropics flaring to life as the monsoon approaches once again is helping to add some heat to this weekend’s heatwave over SA and Vic. The diagram below shows how air that originates in the tropics can be transported to southeastern Australia, and via a blocking high, add heat to southeastern Australian heatwaves. Note: here […]
An active pulse of the Madden-Julian Oscillation will increase the risk of tropical cyclones and thunderstorms in the Australian region over the coming week. The Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) refers to a pulse of increased tropical cloud, rainfall and thunderstorm activity that moves through our planet’s atmosphere, from west to east, near the equator. The MJO […]
A pool of unusually cold water has appeared at the surface of the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean, hinting that the foundations of a La Niña event may be lurking beneath the surface. The Pacific Ocean has been in an El Niño phase for the last 6 to 8 months. An El Niño is characterised by […]
Heavy rain and thunderstorms soaked parts of southeast Qld on Monday into Tuesday morning, with the unstable weather even causing a waterspout in Moreton Bay. Moisture-laden easterly surface winds feeding into a colder pool of air aloft caused ideal conditions for storms in southeast Qld on Monday. While a few storms developed late on Monday […]
Rain and thunderstorms will replace extreme heat over large areas of WA this week, with some places in the state’s north likely to see enough rain to officially mark the start of the wet season. In Australia, the northern wet season is defined as the date after September 1 when at least 50 mm of […]
Perth just had its second hottest summer on record based on daytime temperatures, capping off the season with a remarkably warm February featuring a record-breaking number of 40°C days. The average maximum temperature in Perth this summer was 32.6ºC. This is roughly 1.7°C above the long-term average and the city’s 2nd highest summer maximum temperature […]
Sydney has ended its third warmest summer on record with a warm and muggy day featuring afternoon thunderstorms – providing a fitting end to what was an unusually sweaty season for the NSW capital city. Sydney’s mean temperature this summer will come in at around 24.1ºC, which is just over 2ºC above the long-term […]
Brisbane just tossed and turned through its warmest summer on record based on overnight minimum temperatures, with the city also registering one of its top two warmest summers on record based on the mean temperature. A combination of abnormally high temperatures and atmospheric moisture made Brisbane feel abnormally hot and sweaty this summer. All three […]
Sydney is set to soar to 40 on the last day of summer, with parts of the city’s west likely to reach 39°C or 40°C, while the city should reach 35°C before a late cool change arrives. On Wednesday, temperatures topped 43°C in several spots in the Mallee region in Victoria’s northwest, while temps reached […]
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 […]
