Unusually forceful waves are assaulting the Sydney coastline today. However, these waves have a peculiar quirk: they are not that big. So how can they be considered ‘powerful’? Waves this morning have been measured peaking at 4.5m off the Sydney Coast, with the highest third of waves (the significant wave height) averaging about 2.3m. While […]
Sydney Airport has been grappling with the challenges posed by strong crosswinds, forcing the airport to operate on a single runway several times over the past few weeks. These gusty westerly-component winds (exceeding 20 knots or 37 km/h at times), blowing perpendicular to the north-to-south oriented runways, have created significant disruptions in flight operations, resulting […]
Parts of Western Queensland are already having their wettest July on record after copping 10 to 15 times their monthly average rainfall in the last 24 hours. A northwest cloudband has been causing rain in far Western Qld since Friday, although the heaviest falls in most areas have been occurring from Sunday into Monday morning. […]
Unseasonably heavy rain and flooding could cut off roads in the Kimberley and central Australia this week. The satellite images below show a large northwest cloudband extending across Australia on Monday morning. This colossal cloudband, which is being fuelled by tropical moisture from the Indian Ocean, will produce widespread rain over a broad area of […]
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 […]
