Two atmospheric scientists explain how they weigh evidence such as ocean temperatures, wind speeds and other climate patterns to predict how many Atlantic hurricanes are likely to form this year.
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.
Climate change is already delivering more extremes of wet and dry to the Pacific region.
EPA/FRANCIS R. MALASIG
Researchers ran computer simulations that take into account environmental variability and geographical setting to investigate how early explorers made it to these tiny, remote islands in the Pacific.
Eventually reduced rainfall hit much of Australia thanks to El Niño.
Andrew Watkins
Australia is the land of drought of flooding rains, driven by events such as El Nino. But despite this variability, some parts of Australia are clearly drying out.
The land may be dry, but Western Australia’s waters are full of life.
Russ Babcock
The Great Barrier Reef might get all the attention, but what about our western coral reefs? Warmer waters and human impacts mean these reefs are in trouble.
Lake Kariba’s water evel is down to under 30% – and it may worsen.
Shutterstock
Willem Landman, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
The upcoming El Niño event may see an even bigger drop in the water level of Lake Kariba. This will have terrible consequences for the people using the river.
When the Indian Ocean combines with El Niño dry conditions come to Australia.
Drought images from www.shutterstock.com
Western Australia’s marine environment is unique. Two world heritage areas, the largest fringing coral reef in Australia, and more than a thousand kilometres of underwater forests, supporting incredible…
El Niño means drought in Australia – and floods in America.
Len Matthews
It’s confirmed: 2014 produced the highest global temperatures since records began in the 1880s. As if that’s not cause enough for concern, this year threatens to see the return of El Niño, which like some…
Shark Bay is one of Australia’s 19 World Heritage Areas, home to dolphins, dugongs, and sharks.
Matthew Fraser
In the summer of 2010-2011 Western Australia experienced an unprecedented heatwave — but not on land. Between December 2010 and April 2011, sea temperatures off the WA coast reached 3C above average, and…
Australia’s weather is influenced by warm water movements in the Pacific.
Flickr/Shayan USA
We wait in anticipation of droughts and floods when El Niño and La Niña are forecast but what are these climatic events? The simplest way to understand El Niño and La Niña is through the sloshing around…
