Climate

Analysis and Comment (10)

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It’s a good job they come with built-in jumpers. PA/Niall Carson

How cold has it really been in the northern hemisphere?

By James Screen, University of Exeter; Blair Trewin, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Karl Braganza, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

If you are one of the many people with a larger than normal heating bill for recent months, you would probably be under the impression that it has been exceptionally cold in the northern hemisphere. We…
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It’s getting trickier to forecast future weather, but new models are helping. Jay Wood

Seasonal climate forecasts: reading tea-leaves in a digital age

By Peter McIntosh, CSIRO

Tea-leaves, entrails, cockatoos: we all want to forecast the future. Weather forecasts have become so commonplace we rarely think about the technology, research, computing power and millions of observations…
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Whither the weather: the Bureau of Meteorology’s dynamic climate modelling is not the only forecasting method. AAP/Paul Miller

Predicting El Nino: a tale of two authorities

By Stewart Franks, University of Newcastle

Over the last two summers, Eastern Australia has experienced two of the hardest hitting La Niña events since 1974. Widespread floods resulted across great swaths of the country. As expected, the La Ni…
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A precise weather forecast, months in advance, will never be possible. Matt Smith

A chaotic beast, probably: wacky weather and climate forecasting

By Andrew B. Watkins, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

“Prediction is very difficult. Especially about the future” – so said Neils Bohr, the Danish physicist and 1922 Nobel Prize winner. And you know what? I think the bloke was onto something there, especially…
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Climate models allow us to look at the planet’s future climate. Truthout.org

Explainer: climate modelling

By Stuart Corney, University of Tasmania

We know the climate is changing because that’s what climate models tell us. But what exactly is a climate model, and are they cutting-edge science or modelling madness? What is a climate model? Climate…
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Are these the sorts of speakers you go to a university to hear? AAP.

Why academics should steer clear of public debate

By Raymond Da Silva Rosa, University of Western Australia

The most important issue raised by Lord Monckton’s controversial appearance on two Western Australian campuses is not the limit of free speech or Monckton’s scientific competence. Rather it is whether…
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The Galileo Movement co-opts the father of science’s name to pursue an anti-science agenda.

Rogues or respectable? How climate change sceptics spread doubt and denial

By Ian Enting, University of Melbourne

CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Professor Ian Enting takes a look at the front groups and published texts of Australia’s climate sceptics. The “name-calling” in what passes for public debate on climate…
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The decade ending 2010 was the warmest on record for Australia. AAP

The greenhouse effect is real: here’s why

By Karl Braganza, Australian Bureau of Meteorology

CLEARING UP THE CLIMATE DEBATE: Bureau of Meteorology scientist Karl Braganza explains why we know the climate is changing, and what’s causing it. In public discussions of climate change, the full range…

Research and News (7)

Research Briefs (12)

Sea level affected tropics in ice age

University of Hawaii at Manoa

University of Hawaii at Manoa researchers have investigated preserved geological rainfall pattern clues, or “proxies”, during…

Arctic begins to resemble the south

Boston University

A large scale study that looks at changing seasonality in the northern hemisphere has been completed. Researchers from 17…

Current temperatures hotter than history

Oregon State University

Today’s temperatures are nearly unprecedented in the past 11 000 years, a new study from Oregon State University has found…

No tree rings after volcanic eruptions

Pennsylvania State University

Trees rings may not provide a full record of climate cooling as large enough temperature drops can lead to very short or…

Participants (63)