While the east coast’s weather remains cool and cloudy, Australia’s southern states are set to see warm temperatures as summer arrives this week. Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart are all expected to see the mercury rise this week ahead of an approaching cold front. A run of three days of 30 degrees and over is on the cards between Monday and Thursday for both […]
On Tuesday, November 23, the Bureau of Meteorology declared that La Niña is here. This is now the first back-to-back La Niña in a decade, following the two consecutive La Niña events that occurred between 2010 and 2012. Tuesday’s declaration comes as the ocean and atmosphere in the equatorial Pacific Ocean are now in a clear La […]
Tropical Cyclone Paddy has just developed near Christmas Island, becoming the first named cyclone in Australia’s 2021/22 tropical cyclone season. An unassuming low pressure system that had been spinning away near Christmas Island over the weekend quickly gained strength on Monday morning. By 11am AWST, the system had become a tropical cyclone located around 390 km to the southeast of Christmas Island and […]
Heavy rainfall, strong winds and severe thunderstorms are all on the cards for parts of SA, VIC, TAS and NSW as a low-pressure trough moves over southeastern Australia. On Saturday the trough will generate rain and storms across southeastern Australia. Daily rainfall totals are expected to reach 20-30mm in parts of southern SA and NSW on Saturday (figure 1). Figure 1: ECMWF 24- hour rainfall totals on Saturday November 20. […]
Australia has been under a La Niña Alert for more than a month and the U.S. officially declared La Niña a month ago. So, why hasn’t the Bureau of Meteorology officially declared La Niña yet? The Pacific Ocean has been showing signs of a developing La Niña since the middle of this year. As this pattern matured, the […]
Thunderstorms and the lightning they produce are one of the world’s most dangerous weather phenomena. Each year in Australia there are on average five to ten deaths caused by lightning strikes and over 100 people are gravely injured a year. Lightning can also have a significant impact on business operations. It can cause significant damage to buildings and other infrastructure, directly trigger bushfires, and disrupt air traffic and ground operations at airports. […]
Eastern Australia has been hit by widespread storms, heavy rain and strong winds across parts of QLD, NSW and eastern VIC on Wednesday. A low-pressure system and a broad inland trough in combination with an extremely humid airmass are behind the heavy rain and thunderstorms on the forecast each day until the weekend. The areas of concern over the next 3-4 days are southern QLD, eastern and northern NSW and eastern VIC. The multi-day event may cause […]
Substantial rain will fall over part of every Australian state and territory this week, with flooding and severe thunderstorms likely in several states. A large mass of humid air will interact with two transient low pressure system and several low pressure troughs to trigger a nation-wide deluge across Australia this week. There is good […]
One of Australia’s lesser-known climate drivers will have a big impact on Australia’s weather during the last two months of 2021. The Southern Annular Mode, often referred to as SAM, is an index that measures the position of a belt of westerly winds that flows around Antarctica. The position of these westerly winds can have […]
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 […]
