Category Archives: Extreme weather

The Australian suburbs where more than half of properties will be uninsurable by 2030

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‘We’re now seeing that the system is not able to cope with climate change,’ insurance analyst says

When Kim Sly moved to a lower-lying area of Forbes four years ago, she was asked to pay $12,000 a year for flood insurance.

The bill was a shock. Her new home was built 1.2 metres above the ground to protect it from floods, a factor that did not seem to influence the insurance company’s assessment.

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Flood could cut off NSW town of Moulamein ‘through December’, authorities say

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About 85% of the town’s 484 residents chose to stay despite being told to evacuate, with roads out expected to be closed for several weeks

Hundreds of residents of the small Riverina town of Moulamein have elected to stay and defend their properties against the rising flood waters even though authorities have warned they may be isolated into December.

The State Emergency Service warned the whole town to evacuate by 2pm Tuesday or face weeks being cut off as the Edward River, which joins with the swollen Billabong Creek in the town, was expected to peak at 6.2 metres on Thursday.

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BoM update suggests big wet to continue as La Niña lingers – as it happened

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David Pocock was asked how he would vote on the IR bill, if he was made to vote for it today while on ABC radio RN.

He said he couldn’t “in good conscience” vote for the bill, if it came to the crunch today (which it won’t, it was a hypothetical).

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Fears of Sydney water restrictions as only 25% of Warragamba Dam catchment deemed safe to drink

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Sydney Water says filtration systems under extreme pressure amid floods, as all Melbourne beaches declared unsuitable for swimming

Just a quarter of Sydney’s largest drinking water catchment, the Warragamba Dam, is safe for consumption, prompting fears residents will need to conserve water.

Ben Blayney, the head of water supply and production at Sydney Water, said the past year’s floods had placed extreme pressure on the city’s water filtration system.

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Authorities warn of flooding impacts for ‘months’ as second death recorded in NSW

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Body thought to be that of Les Vugec, 85, who was last seen at his Eugowra home on Monday

Major flooding is forecast to continue along several river systems in New South Wales as flood-hit communities survey the damage and authorities warn it could be months before the deluge comes to an end.

A second death was recorded in Eugowra on Saturday after a body was found on the outskirts of town.

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Evacuation order issued for Condobolin; Albanese says renewables can fight inflation – as it happened

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Lachlan River is at major flood level and SES predicts a record peak of 7.8 metres on Monday. This blog is now closed

Poppy seed tea warning

Australians are being warned not to drink poppy seed tea, promoted on popular social media platforms, after a spate of poisoning cases across Australia linked to the home-brewed sedative.

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NSW floods: Condobolin waits behind 3km wall of sandbags as record peak flows west from Forbes

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Forbes mayor criticises decision to base recovery team in Parkes as towns and villages downstream wait days for peak

The New South Wales central-west town of Condobolin is experiencing the worst flood in its history and the expected peak is still days away.

The State Emergency Service has predicted the Lachlan River at the town 100km west of Forbes will peak at 7.8 metres on Monday – a record flood height. On Saturday afternoon an evacuation order was issued for low-lying parts of the town.

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Apec leaders condemn North Korean missile test – as it happened

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Multi-employer bargaining should be limited to low paid sectors – Westacott

The second thing Jennifer Westacott tells Patricia Karvelas the BCA doesn’t like, is that big business could bargain together:

The second thing we’re really concerned about is the kind of expansion of the multi-employer agreement remember at the summit of the jobs and skill set that this was very much about low paid workers.

So our argument is, well, why wouldn’t you just fix up that low paid stream rather than what we’re currently doing, which was more we have to carve the sector out. The issue and this is more complex is than in the current proposal, and we’re very worried about this, that big employers could be forced to bargain together and that is not good for wages.

The first is and the government to be fair, let’s be clear, we are working constructively with the government. We’re working constructively with the crossbench I think everyone wants Australians wages to go up.

I don’t think the legislation in its current form is going to do that and let me give you those three reasons.

Well, we want to see obviously that period longer, but we want to see kind of much clearer kind of restatement of the objects of the act that the single enterprise system is the system that we want people to use. We want it to be much easier for people where they agree they just keep bargaining.

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News live updates: Medibank, Optus among companies shunning privacy law hearing in ‘collective failure of corporate Australia’

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Greens senator David Shoebridge has criticised notable absences at a Senate committee looking at privacy laws today. Follow the day’s news live

ADF personnel to help in NSW as government works on dedicated disaster workforce

Murray Watt is asked about a permanent disaster workforce to assist during national disasters and their clean-up, given the pressure put on the defence force.

The ADF does certainly play a role, particularly in the recovery phase. And just yesterday we activated more defence forces to go into western New South Wales to assist so over the next couple of days, we expect to see 200 defence force personnel helping there to top up these state-based services. But the reality is all of this is putting a huge amount of pressure, whether it be on those state-based services or the ADF. And that’s why in this budget, we committed over $30m to a volunteer veteran organisation called Disaster Relief Australia to sort of top up the kind of services that are available for communities, particularly in that clean-up phase.

But we’re going to be keeping on doing some work on this about what we need to put in place as a country to supplement the ADF and I’d be hopeful that we might be able to bring that to a conclusion around about the budget next year.

There’s insurance costs so let alone the huge damage bill that individuals are going to be incurring themselves.

So I think everyone is unfortunately going to be having to put their hands in their pockets for for this unfolding event that just won’t go away.

So even if we weren’t to get any more rain, we’re going to be looking at even more damage from the existing flood waters. And, as I say, I think we’re likely to see more. We’ve also got to remember that we haven’t yet seen the cyclone season start whether that be in north Queensland, Western Australia or Northern Territory. So unfortunately I haven’t got a lot of good news for people except for the fact that there is unlikely to be a lot of rain over the next couple of days. So that’s a good thing.

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Devastating floods in Nigeria were 80 times more likely because of climate crisis

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Stark findings add pressure on Cop27 negotiators to deliver meaningful funding to vulnerable countries

The heavy rain behind recent devastating flooding in Nigeria, Niger and Chad was made about 80 times more likely by the climate crisis, a study has found.

The finding is the latest stark example of the severe impacts that global heating is already wreaking on communities, even with just a 1C rise in global temperature to date. It adds pressure on the world’s nations at the UN Cop27 climate summit in Egypt to deliver meaningful action on protecting and compensating affected countries.

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NSW floods: Amber Stevens airlifted from atop a water tank with her baby, husband and two dogs

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‘We rang the SES but they couldn’t get to us, there was no boat,’ says the resident of Tichborne in the state’s central west

Amber Stevens went to bed on Sunday night expecting her paddock could get a little wet, nothing more. You didn’t get big floods in Tichborne – hadn’t for 70 years.

The next evening, she was huddled on top of a water tank, with her baby Finn, husband and two dogs, watching a sea of flood water engulf her home in the usually barren central west of New South Wales.

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Global heating to drive stronger La Niña and El Niño events by 2030, researchers say

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New modelling suggests climate change-driven variability will be detectable decades earlier than previously expected

Stronger La Niña and El Niño events due to global heating will be detectable in the eastern Pacific Ocean by 2030, decades earlier than previously expected, new modelling suggests.

Researchers have analysed 70 years of reliable sea surface temperature records in the Pacific Ocean to model changes in the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (Enso) under current projections of global heating.

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Australia news live: immediate evacuation orders as central west NSW faces dramatic floods; record early voting in Victoria

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The SES has said the Lachlan River is rising faster than originally forecast. Follow all today’s news

Some issues ‘we have raised will be solved overnight’: Chalmers

Albanese has said there are no preconditions ahead of the meeting with Xi but Karvelas is pressing Chalmers on what could be on the table. He’s staying pretty tight-lipped but here are some of his answers.

We’ve made it really clear for some time … that these trade sanctions are not in Australia’s interests, and we want to see them lifted.

I don’t think anybody pretends some of the issues China has raised, certainly some we have raised will be solved overnight, but again we give ourselves a much better chance where there is engagement and dialogue.

Australia’s made its views clear over a long period of time when it comes to the detention of these two people.

What’s Australia’s ambition here?

We seek a more stable relationship with China.

We will speak up for our national interest where necessary, but we believe engagement is important to give ourselves the chance to work through some of these issues if we’re talking to each other.

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Weather tracker: unusual cold and snow spreading across North America

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Temperatures in Canada dropped by as much as 20C below normal this week

Significant cold is spreading widely across North America this weekend, having already affected northern and western parts so far this week.

During the night of 9 November, temperatures across central and western provinces of Canada, as well as many western states of the US, plummeted to at least 10C (18F) below normal, with some parts of Canada seeing temperatures as low as 20C (36F) below normal.

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Tropical Storm Nicole expected to hit Florida as rare late-season hurricane

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Nicole expected to strengthen and make landfall on Thursday as state of emergency is declared in 34 counties

A rare late-season hurricane is expected to hit Florida, after the Sunshine state dealt with the impact of Hurricane Ian a month ago.

Tropical Storm Nicole is expected to make landfall in eastern Florida this week. As the storm continues to strengthen, it is expected to make landfall as a category 1 hurricane on Thursday morning, reported CNN citing the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

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Met Office predicts severe flooding across England in February

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Floods would most likely be the result of La Niña – a powerful weather pattern influenced by cooler temperatures in the Pacific

Severe flooding caused by La Niña is predicted for February despite England remaining in drought, the Met Office has said.

Two-thirds of people who are at risk of flooding do not realise they are, the government said on Monday, as it embarked on a major awareness campaign. This is significant, as the average cost to a flooded household is £30,000.

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Flood threat remains in NSW; Daniel Andrews asks ‘what is the point’ of Herald Sun story revisiting his fall – as it happened

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Chaney ‘not convinced’ IR changes will ‘drive an increase in wages’

On the proposed industrial relations changes, Chaney says she supports the proposal where it will lift wages in low-paid sectors of the economy but is wary of introducing “another layer of complexity” into workplaces and is not convinced multi-employer bargaining will actually lift wages.

I’m completely supportive of the fact that we need to increase wages and increase share of wages to GDP. I think the expansion – the multi-employer bargaining for the supported stream is a good thing, [in] those low-paid industries, and that may well get wages moving.

[It will benefit] childcare, aged care, largely feminised industries, and that seems to make a lot of sense. I’m concerned about the overreach and this extension of multi-employer bargaining to any group that are deemed to have a common interest, as determined by the Fair Work Commission. I think it’s great for IR specialists and lawyers.

I can understand the government’s desire to keep its promises, but when you look at where we are, really there is nothing to take the place of the revenue lost in those tax cuts, so it needs to be part of a broader review of how are we going to pay for the things we need.

I reckon they should be delayed, pending a broader review of the tax system and it may be that a result that have could be trimming them at the top, or it could be looking at different sources of revenue that mean we can rely less on personal income tax as we see our population age.

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One dead, dozens injured after tornadoes rip through Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma

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‘Total destruction’ and dozens of people still unaccounted for in Texas town while Arkansas and Oklahoma also hit by tornadoes

At least two people have died and dozens more are injured after tornadoes ravaged parts of Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Several twisters caused property damage and physical injury across the various states on Friday. Tornado warnings had still been in effect as of late Friday in parts of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.

Ramon Antonio Vargas contributed reporting.

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Two men missing in NSW flood waters as Gundagai braces for worst flooding in 33 years

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Search continued for two people swept off ute near Boorowa as prime minister said he hoped for positive news

Anthony Albanese says he is concerned about two men missing in flood waters after their ute was washed off the road in central New South Wales.

As the Riverina town of Gundagai braced for its worst flooding in 33 years, the State Emergency Service undertook 39 flood rescues in the 24 hours to Wednesday morning.

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Weather tracker: Storm Nalgae heads towards China after pelting Philippines

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Sixteenth tropical cyclone to affect the Philippines this season caused deadly floods and landslides

Tropical Storm Nalgae swept through the Philippines on Saturday with sustained winds of 60mph.

Heavy rain caused the most damage, with significant flooding and landslides. Dozens of people have died and 170,000 sought shelter in evacuation centres.

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