The “warm blob” of remarkably warm water in the Pacific is changing weather patterns and impacting marine life, providing clues to how ecosystems may change in a warmer future.
Whale sharks were one of the warm water species to move south during the 2010-2011 marine heatwave.
Ben Henrich/Flickr
While eastern Australia trembles in the face of an El Niño, Western Australia’s oceans could finally see relief from devastating marine heatwaves.
Breaking the ice: while scientists increasingly understand why Antarctic sea ice is growing, it remains tricky to forecast.
Australian Antarctic Division
This last year we were preparing for an El Niño. But then it all just fizzled out. So what happened? And could this be the year?
Recent extreme rains such as those that hit Sydney recently are actually decreasing, but extreme rain in summer is going up.
AAP Image/NEWZULU/LISA HOSKING
What causes the wild weather that’s hit Sydney and central New South Wales over the past 24 hours?
Clumps of thunderstorms are driving increases in rain over tropical oceans.
Image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center
For a long time climate models have forecast increasing rainfall in tropics. Now we know part of the reason: clumpy thunderstorms.
Surging tides from Cyclone Marcia hit Main Beach in Yeppoon, Queensland, with the storm packing wind gusts close to 300 kilometres an hour.
AAP Image/Karin Calvert
Emergency services are using social media to help spread warnings as two tropical cyclones batter Australia. It can also help them with relief efforts once the worst of the severe weather has passed.
Sometimes you don’t need a measuring stick to come up with an assessment: really, really deep.
katorisi
Attacks on institutions that keep records of global temperatures, such as NASA, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the UK Met Office, and Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, continue…
Adjusted data from Australian weather stations has been peer-reviewed before. But the government’s new technical panel could still offer useful advice.
Bidgee/Wikimedia Commons
The federal government’s new “Technical Advisory Forum” on weather data, announced by parliamentary environment secretary Bob Baldwin last week, will “review and provide advice on Australia’s official…
What does Paraguay have to do with the global temperature record?
dany13/Flickr
An article in The Australian today has once again raised the question of why scientists, in trying to estimate how the global and regional surface temperatures of Earth may have changed over the past century…
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…
Could climate change be making flying more unsafe?
KamrenB Photography
On December 28, AirAsia flight QZ8501 crashed into the sea between Indonesia and Singapore. Shortly before the crash, the pilots requested an alteration to the flight route due to severe weather. While…
Horses cool off during an Adelaide heatwave in January 2014.
AAP Image/David Mariuz
2014 has been confirmed as Australia’s third-hottest year, capping off a record-breaking decade, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s annual climate statement, released today. Seven of Australia’s…
Stay tuned for my weather report at 11!
Bryan Costin
As we officially enter winter, some of us are already looking for signs it will be over soon. Folk wisdom tells us to look to the woollys for insight into how bad the season will be.
‘Plates of the Outback’ - A supercell thunderstorm near Urana, NSW drifts over the landscape.
John Allen
The supercell that hit Brisbane on November 27 this year caused more than A$500 million worth of damage, produced hail up to 7.5 cm in diameter, and lashed the city with winds of more than 140 km an hour…
A dramatically-named “weather bomb” exploded across the UK in the past week, bringing winds gusting up to 144mph on outlying islands. But despite the cool name these “bombs” are more common than you might…