Even the fabled Fremantle Doctor has been running a fever as Perth gets close to racking up a record-challenging number of 35ºC this summer. Perth suffered a pair of very hot days towards the end of last week, with temperatures reaching 42.0ºC on Friday and 42.3ºC on Saturday. Image: Perth’s minimum and maximum temperatures over […]
Excessive heat is not just a scorching summer’s day. It’s a meteorological event characterised by temperatures that significantly exceed the average for a region. These heat conditions pose serious threats to both the environment and human health. Excessive heat can be sorted into two categories: long-lasting heatwaves and short high-intensity heat. We can visualise both […]
Parts of eastern Australia just sweltered through one of the warmest nights in years, with temperatures in some towns failing to drop below 30ºC. The infrared satellite image below shows thick cloud encompassing the southeast in the early hours of Monday morning, as ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily impacts southwestern Queensland and western NSW. Image: […]
Australia just had its third-warmest and ninth-wettest January on record, which is a remarkable combination. Ordinarily, you would not expect both above-average temperatures and above-average rainfall to go hand in hand. Simply put, that’s because clouds block direct sunlight, preventing warming. For example, Australia’s hottest January on record fell in a scorching, sunny summer. That […]
Victoria’s east will be next in the firing line with the heavy rainfall and flash flooding that affected NSW and northern Vic on Wednesday set to shift south. A low-pressure system and an abnormally warm Tasman Sea caused heavy rainfall over a large area of NSW and northern Vic overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. The […]
A barrage of dangerous thunderstorms will strike southeast Qld on Thursday afternoon and evening, with large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain all likely. October has been a very dry month so far across southeast Qld, with Brisbane only receiving 3.6 mm of rain since the start of the month, and even less falling around […]
There were “striking” scenes in the skies above the southwest of Western Australia on Sunday afternoon, as a quarter of a million lightning strikes sparked a spectacular sky show. The awesome natural fireworks display was caused by a trough moving through the area, with significantly cooler air behind the warm airmass east of the […]
A positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) event is gaining strength to the northwest of Australia, increasing the risk of hot and dry weather and fires in the coming months. What is the IOD? The IOD is an index that measures the difference in sea surface temperature anomalies between the western and eastern sides of the […]
An outbreak of early-spring thunderstorms has caused prolific lightning over Australia’s southeastern states during the last 24 hours. The animation below shows lightning spreading across central and southeastern Australia on Thursday and Friday morning. These storms were triggered by a large pool of cold air from the Southern Ocean clashing with much warmer air […]
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 […]
