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.
Sydney is in the process of smashing the record for the longest run of days above 26°C. Weather, El Nino and climate change are all playing their part.
Former PM’s business advisor Maurice Newman recently claimed that satellite temperature data tell a different story to data collected on the ground. He’s right - but that’s how it’s meant to be.
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.
El Niño dominated global climate in 2015, but in Australia the story was more complicated. 2015 was Australia’s fifth warmest year on record, and saw the return of very dry conditions to parts of Australia.
The Millennium Drought ended more than five years ago, but several years of below-average rainfall and El Niño have brought drought back to many parts of Australia. Our latest report on water in Australia shows rainfall is continuing to decline in eastern Australia and increase in the north.