Category Archives: Australia weather

Cyclone Ilsa intensifies to category 4 as Western Australia prepares for impact

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Port Hedland mayor Peter Carter warns loose objects have the potential to become ‘missiles in the air’ during ‘unpredictable’ cyclones

Pilbara residents are on edge as Tropical Cyclone Ilsa, now a category 4 system, bears down on the Western Australian coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology upgraded the cyclone to a category 4 system on Thursday morning, with gusts near the centre up to 230km/h as it tracks toward the coast 290km north of Port Hedland.

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Cyclone Ilsa strong enough to ‘pick up a caravan’ when it makes landfall in WA on Thursday

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Tropical cyclone set to strengthen to category 4, bringing gusts of 250km/h when it makes landfall between Broome and Port Hedland

A tropical cyclone is expected to make landfall in Western Australia on Thursday, bringing winds strong enough to damage roofing, knock over trees and caravans and cause widespread power outages, the Bureau of Meteorology has warned.

Category 3 tropical Cyclone Ilsa is about 370km north-west of Broome, but is expected to strengthen to a category 4 by the time it makes landfall between Broome and Port Hedland on Thursday, making it the first storm of such magnitude to strike the region in more than a decade.

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Cold snap to continue after Easter brings snow to Australia’s eastern states

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‘Very cold and gusty’ winds have lowered temperatures up and down the east coast and brought warnings of wild surf conditions

Australia’s east coast is shivering through an unseasonal cold snap with the cloudy, wet and windy Easter weekend weather expected to linger.

Much of the south-east coast, including New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania will experience cold weather throughout the week, with cooler-than-average temperatures expected until at least Thursday.

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Australian government ‘concerned’ by potential Pentagon leak; cold-weather snap hits south-east – as it happened

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US investigating source of what appear to be classified documents circulating on social media. This blog is now closed

Medico fights for life after Tasmanian hospital attack

A youth has been arrested after a medical professional was critically injured at a Tasmanian hospital, AAP reports.

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Anthony Albanese thanks public holiday workers on Easter Sunday as below-average temperatures tipped across Australia

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Prime minister celebrates nation’s diversity and echoes police message for road safety

Anthony Albanese wished Australians a happy Easter on Sunday, saying the religious holiday showed the nation’s diversity.

In his official message, the prime minister said Easter Sunday was a holy day marking the resurrection and a celebration of faith, hope and renewal for many.

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Four killed in Canberra crash as Easter break gets off to deadly start

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One person in hospital after two cars collided on Barton Highway, with severe weather warnings across eastern Australia

Four people have died and a major highway out of Canberra has been closed in a fatal start to the Easter long weekend on the roads.

It brings the death toll on the roads to at least eight in two days amid wild weather and stormy conditions.

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Wet Easter weekend expected as cold trough heads across Australia

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Sydney and Melbourne could both see showers, while thunderstorms are forecast in Queensland

Australians can expect a cooler and wetter Easter long weekend than normal this year as a cold trough makes its way across the country.

In Sydney, Good Friday should begin with a sunny morning and reach a maximum of 26C, but showers or even a thunderstorm are likely to hit in the afternoon.

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Labor claims Aston win, throwing Dutton’s Liberal leadership into question – as it happened

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Labor’s Mary Doyle has two-party preferred swing of at least 6% in the count on Saturday evening. This blog is now closed

Dutton says Labor’s road funding cuts in Aston ‘a disaster’

Out of hiding and into the open, opposition leader Peter Dutton has been seen on the campaign trail in Aston today.

[Labor] haven’t explained to the people of Aston why it is that they cut road funding as the first act in government, and it’s quite remarkable.

It’s a disaster for locals and people realise that the first act of the Albanese government was to cut road funding here in Aston … They’ve never apologised for it, they never explained why.

There are a lot of Australian families who have heard Anthony Albanese promise before the last election on 97 occasions that he would reduce your power to $275. That was a promise he made before the election, he’s never mentioned it since, not once.

So cost of living pressures are real for families and the opportunity in the election today is to send a very clear message to Labor that they shouldn’t be cutting local road funding, and they shouldn’t be abandoning this community.

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NSW swelters in record heat as firefighters battle blazes

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Wagga Wagga experiences its hottest March weather yet, breaking a previous high set in 1983

Inland New South Wales sweltered through record-breaking March temperatures on Sunday as fires burned across the state.

While inner Sydney remained relatively cool – the mercury peaked at 28.9C, thanks to a sea breeze – the state’s western districts scorched, with temperatures above 42C in Bourke, Cobar and Brewarrina.

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Australia news live: Daniel Andrews says ‘Nazis aren’t welcome’ in Victoria after march outside parliament

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Submarines will be kept under Australia’s control, minister says

Richard Marles insists any submarines in Australia’s fleet will be kept under the control and direction of the Australian government.

If there was a point in time in the future where there was a conflict in the world, where there was the prospect of one of these submarines with Australians onboard entering it, that is obviously going to be a matter for the government at the time.

Just on this point – in return for access to these Virginia-class subs, has Australia given the United States any sort of commitment, explicitly, implicitly, that we will be there in the event of a conflict over Taiwan?

The answer to that is of course not. Of course not. And nor was one sought. I’ve listened to that conjecture from a number of commentators. It is plain wrong.

No quid pro quo here over the access to the Virginia-class subs?

Absolutely not. And I couldn’t be more unequivocal than that.

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Neo-Nazis and trans rights protesters clash in Melbourne; bushfire alert for parts of Great Ocean Road – as it happened

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Melbourne forecast to reach 37C while northern regions of the state could exceed 40C. This blog is now closed

Federal government welcomes decision to hear MH17 case

The federal government has welcomed the International Civil Aviation Organization Council’s decision to hear Australia and the Netherlands’ case against Russia for the downing of flight MH17.

We have maintained since May 2018 that the Russian Federation is responsible under international law for the downing of Flight MH17.

We now look forward to presenting our legal arguments and evidence to the ICAO Council as we continue to seek to hold Russia to account.

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Late-season heat may hit weekend sport and break temperature records across eastern Australia

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Sydney and Brisbane have been sweltering through unseasonal warmth and Melbourne is forecast to cop 37C on Saturday

Unusual late-season heat across much of eastern Australia may affect weekend sport and potentially challenge temperature records, forecasters say.

Sydney and Brisbane have already been sweltering through a couple of days of unseasonal warmth, straining power supplies on Thursday evening. The national electricity market was also suspended in New South Wales for almost an hour on Friday.

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Myer to close flagship Brisbane store – as it happened

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Turnbull concerned about UK economic situation

Malcolm Turnbull rounded out his concerns there with one shared with Paul Keating – although the language he used was a little more moderated than the former Labor PM is famous for.

The bottom line is their economy is sick. It’s got fundamental, sort of existential problems. And you’ve got to ask yourself, whether Britain is going to be able to sustain investment in its navy and its military in the years ahead, given this huge demand that they’ve got elsewhere, not least the National Health Service.

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Late summer heat for New South Wales with parts of Sydney on track for 40C

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Heatwave comes as Bureau of Meteorology confirms La Niña event that has brought much of the rain to the east coast is over

New South Wales will swelter through an unusual burst of summer in March, with a heatwave expected to grip the state this week with temperatures in parts of Sydney reaching close to 40C.

From Wednesday, parts of NSW will experience multiple days in the low to mid-30s while other areas will reach the high 30s.

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Albanese meets with UK PM ahead of submarine deal unveiling – As it happened

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Severe flooding continued in Queensland; PM to meet Joe Biden and Rishi Sunak to announce Aukus terms. This blog is now closed

Circling back to the interview with Tammy Tyrrell. Tyrrell wants to see the government invest at least 4% of its multibillion-dollar social housing plan in Tasmania. She says it’s only fair, as a government survey shows 4.6% of people most in need of housing support are in Tasmania.

Tyrrell says she will be meeting next week with the housing minister, Julie Collins, about the request.

They haven’t shut me down. They haven’t said no, but they haven’t said yes.

It’s absolutely fundamental to everything that I do. My job is to represent the people of Indi in the federal parliament and in doing that, I try my darnedest to connect policy to the people to the policy, every single time.

So I go to them when I have to make a decision about a piece of legislation I may not be clear on. And I go to them and explain why I’ve made the decision I have once that legislation is through the parliament.

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Queensland floods: Burketown residents warned of crocodile-infested waters ahead of expected peak

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Authorities say community still in town could be isolated for up to two weeks with water levels continuing to rise

About 70 people are holding out in the stranded Queensland town of Burketown, as the swollen Albert River to the town’s east continues to rise, and authorities warn that flood waters are likely infested with crocodiles.

Ahead of the expected peak of flood waters, the ranger in charge of the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation, Zachariah Sowden, said there had already been reported sightings of crocodiles swimming in flood waters.

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Queensland floods: police say Burketown ‘not safe’ as dozens airlifted out

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Residents in state’s rural west are bracing for the peak of record flooding on Sunday

Residents in Queensland’s rural west are bracing for the peak of record flooding on Sunday as authorities warn any remaining residents, particularly the elderly and children, to leave immediately.

Police concerns centred on the outback town of Burketown, in the state’s north-west, where authorities were on Saturday “strongly urging all remaining residents to leave … as soon as possible”.

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Queensland’s north hit by heavy rain and floods as tropical storm heads south

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Widespread rainfall expected in state’s south-east this weekend but nowhere near the 500mm recorded in the north-west

The tropical storm that has caused widespread flooding across far north Queensland is heading south, but is expected to ease before it hits Brisbane, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Parts of Queensland’s north-west were hit with more than 500mm of rain in the 48 hours to Thursday morning, the BoM information specialist Danny Teece-Johnson said.

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Hot, windy conditions drive up NSW fire danger again before Wednesday’s cool change

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Heatwave continues along the coast and extreme fire danger forecast inland as windy weather picks up

Hot and windy conditions were expected to drive up the fire danger in New South Wales on Tuesday, as the autumnal heatwave continues in parts of the state and more than 30 fires burn.

Extreme fire danger is forecast in the central ranges and greater Hunter areas, where total fire bans are in place.

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High temperatures and sunny weather headed for NSW, with parts reaching 40C

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Mercury forecast to top 30C in Sydney over the weekend, before rising to 35C on Monday

New South Wales is expected to swelter through high temperatures in the coming days, with some parts of the state forecast to nudge over 40C.

The mercury expected to top 30C across Sydney over the weekend, before rising again on Monday.

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