Severe storms bring a complex mixture of weather conditions, often in a very localised area. This unpredictability can make them very damaging, and very hard to study too.
Most people in Australia’s southeast are familiar with the stormy weather known as East Coast Lows. But they might not realise how much scientific progress has been made in understanding them.
Was Malcolm Turnbull right to say that larger and more frequent storms are one of the predicted consequences of climate change – but that you can’t attribute any particular storm to global warming?
Terry Flew, Queensland University of Technology and Axel Bruns, Queensland University of Technology
When disaster strikes, more people than ever are turning to social media to find out if they’re in danger. But Australian emergency services need to work together more to learn what works to save lives.
The dust storm that turned Sydney red in 2009 triggered plankton blooms in the Tasman Sea, demonstrating how we might fertilise the ocean to take up more carbon dioxide.
Kerry Emanuel, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The latest science on hurricanes and climate change explained – vital information for coastal regions to prepare for the effects of more intense storms.
Climate warming is predicted to intensify rainfall patterns. But new research suggests this could even happen within individual storms, as warmer weather makes them more likely to contain short intense bursts.