Analysis of flood gauge data suggest that floods are becoming less frequent in many parts of the world. Despite that, more people and property are at risk, particularly in developing countries.
Nowhere to hide? With 2℃ of global warming, the stifling heat of January 2013 would be the norm for Australia.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
Global warming of 2℃, the higher of the two Paris targets, would see current record-breaking temperatures become the norm in the future, potentially bringing heatwaves to both land and sea.
Lismore received a drenching from the tail end of Tropical Cyclone Debbie.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
The record floods of 1954 and 1974 still stand as Lismore's high-water marks. But Tropical Cyclone Debbie delivered her deluge far more abruptly than the rains that triggered those historic floods.
The 2011 Brisbane floods were thought to be a ‘one-in-100-year’ event.
AAP Image/Dave Hunt
Extreme wet years are getting wetter and more common. This means Australia's terrestrial ecosystems will play a larger role in the global carbon cycle.
Jeremy Bird, International Water Management Institute
The current climate talks in Morocco are a golden opportunity for making strides on the adaptation of African agriculture. African countries need the tools necessary to do so.
Knowing when and where this is going to happen would be useful.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
Floods are a costly part of Australian life, which means we need to get better at predicting exactly when - and how severely - they are likely to strike in the future.
Bushfires were the most common disaster in New South Wales over the past decade.
AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy
A comprehensive analysis of Tasmania's natural disaster risks has identified bushfire as the biggest threat, alongside emerging issues such as disease epidemics and heatwaves.
The Grampians, like much of Australia, has swung from Millennium Drought to Big Wet and back again, putting animal populations on a rollercoaster that could get worse as climate change bites.
U.S. Coast Guard personnel rescue stranded residents in Baton Rouge on August 14, 2016.
U.S. Department of Agriculture/Wikipedia
Recent floods in southeast Louisiana were the most severe U.S. natural disaster since 2012's Hurricane Sandy. Suburban sprawl and slow execution of flood control projects worsened the damage.
The Pasha Bulker ran aground amid the full force of an East Coast Low back in 2007.
AAP Image/Dean Lewins
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.
Cataclysmic natural disasters frame indelible human stories.
Francis Danby, The Deluge
New research suggests a mythical flood in China really happened about 4,000 years ago. It's the latest case of scientists matching ancient tales to actual local natural disasters.
Damaged property in Sydney following recent wild weather.
AAP Image/David Moir
Florent Baarsch, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research; Bill Hare, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research et Michiel Schaeffer, Wageningen University
