The 2023 megafires burnt more than 84 million hectares of desert and savannah in northern Australia. That’s larger than the whole of NSW, or more than three times size of the UK.
It’s not just ocean temperatures that determine whether we have El Niño or La Niña. Air circulation also plays a role, and it’s changing in unexpected ways.
Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
2016 was the world’s warmest year on record, due in part to a very strong El Niño event. But 2023 (and 2024) could beat that record – what should we expect?
Where there’s fire, there’s smoke – could plumes from the Black Summer of fire have cooled regions of the Pacific and triggered a La Niña? New research suggests it’s possible.
We can now monitor coastal changes across thousands of beaches over the last 40 years, from Australia, New Zealand and Japan, to Chile, Peru, Mexico and California. Here’s what our new tool uncovered.
Kevin Trenberth, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
A climate scientist explains the forces behind the summer’s extreme downpours and dangerous heat waves, and why new locations will be at risk in the coming year.
By following moisture from the oceans to the land, researchers worked out exactly how three oceans conspire to deliver deluges of rain to eastern Australia.