Residents in suburbs without power or drinking water from the storm on Thursday are exempt from coronavirus travel restrictions
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting more damaging winds to sweep Victoria, while some Melbourne residents are still dealing with the impacts of Thursday’s storm.
The Bom has forecast that strong north to northwesterly winds will develop early Sunday ahead of a front that will move across the state during the day.
Continue reading...Report finds climate change ‘clearly played a role’ in conditions that led up to Australia’s 2019-2020 fires, which were so extreme, traditional firefighting methods often failed
Last summer’s bushfire disaster was so unusual that traditional firefighting methods, such as hazard reduction burning, failed in some instances, an inquiry into the crisis heard.
The final report of the New South Wales bushfire inquiry, published on Tuesday, said the 2019-20 bushfire season brought fires in forested regions on a scale not seen in recorded history in Australia.
Continue reading...SES orders parts of Moruya, Nowra and Captains Flat to evacuate as kayaker in Canberra dies and 400 calls for help come from Sydney and Blue Mountains
Several New South Wales south coast communities were on high alert on Monday morning as river levels continued to rise and towns evacuated.
The body of a kayaker was found in swollen river waters in southern Canberra on Sunday. He became separated from a group on the Murrumbidgee River near Canberra about 2pm on Sunday, after his boat became stuck under a bridge.
Continue reading...Aircraft chief describes frustration at losing vital time while inquiry also told firefighter radios in different areas ‘largely incompatible’
Pilots flying water-bombing aircraft are “consistently tasked too late for fires” and sit idle on the tarmac until conditions worsen, the royal commission into national natural disaster arrangements has been told.
The inquiry also heard that the radio networks used by firefighting agencies in each jurisdiction are “largely incompatible” with each other and the lack of national coordination meant that resources were not always used effectively.
Continue reading...Remnants of ex-Tropical Cyclone Mangga whip up 100km/h wind gusts, dust storms and heavy rain as Perth and state’s south prepares for onslaught
Some 50,000 homes in Western Australia are still without power as the state continues to be battered by wild weather for a second day in a row, in a “rare event” described as a “once-in-a-decade” storm.
The state has experienced the wildest autumn weather in years, as the remnants of ex-Tropical Cyclone Mangga collided with a cold front and trough, whipping up gusts of about 100km/h.
Continue reading...Ex-Tropical Cyclone Mangga expected to bring 100km/h winds, heavy rain and massive waves along a 3,000km stretch of coast
A massive “once-in-a-decade” storm is expected to hit Australia’s entire west coast on Sunday and Monday, bringing potentially dangerous conditions and prompting authorities to place defence force units on standby.
The Bureau of Meteorology said the storm – the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Mangga combined with a cold front – represented an “unusually widespread severe weather event”.
Continue reading...Beaches remain open in Western Australia as police praise the public for respecting coronavirus physical distancing rules
Police have praised West Australian beachgoers for respecting physical distancing rules as Perth sweltered through its hottest April day on record.
Perth’s temperature reached 39.5C on Saturday, eclipsing the previous April record set in 1910.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Mass bleaching seen along Great Barrier Reef could mark start of global-scale event, expert warns
Rising ocean temperatures could have pushed the world’s tropical coral reefs over a tipping point where they are hit by bleaching on a “near-annual” basis, according to the head of a US government agency program that monitors the globe’s coral reefs.
Dr Mark Eakin, coordinator of Coral Reef Watch at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Guardian Australia there was a risk that mass bleaching seen along the length of the Great Barrier Reef in 2020 could mark the start of another global-scale bleaching event.
Continue reading...Strong wind warnings also in place for coastal regions across south-east Queensland and northern NSW
Tropical Cyclone Gretel is set to bypass Norfolk Island in the next 48 hours, although it will still create damaging winds.
Tropical Cyclone Gretel may not make landfall but was still expected to have an impact with damaging wind warnings of around 100km/h for coastal regions across south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales.
Continue reading...Heavy rainfall across New South Wales and Queensland boosts rivers and allow farmers to plant crops for the first time in several seasons
Heavy and widespread rain across three states is bringing joy to parched towns with some farming regions receiving “drought-breaking” rains.
Further rainfall from ex-Tropical Cyclone Esther was delivering water into regional water storages and rivers, with farmers able to plant crops for the first time in several seasons.
Continue reading...Australia is heating more rapidly than the global average, with a rise of 4C expected by 2100, Bureau of Meteorology says
The summer just finished was Australia’s second-hottest on record, with the temperature 1.88C above average, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
The only hotter summer on record was the previous year, which was 2.14C above average. Temperatures this summer were above average across almost the entire country.
Continue reading...Yang Chen says watching survival and adventure TV shows helped her stay alive, as she knew to keep hydrated and warm
A Chinese student who survived in flooded and dense Gold Coast bushland for five days used an empty milk bottle to collect water and get by.
Yang Chen went missing last Wednesday while walking with a friend in the Tallebudgera Valley and spent the next five nights sheltering in caves until she was found by water police near Gorge Falls on Monday morning.
Continue reading...Sydney and the New South Wales Central Coast are set to receive more rainfall in 24 hours than they have since 1998. Follow the latest
• NSW weather: six families rescued from floodwaters as rain lashes east coast
Commiserations with Canberra and other parts of the east coast that have missed this rain.
Rain: the ONE type of weather #Canberra actually wants this summer, and apparently THE ONLY TYPE we won't get. pic.twitter.com/n7ftT8CNgi
Sydney is not the only place that’s flooded.
Awabakal Nation/Lake Macquarie pic.twitter.com/S5LVHa1PBp
Plenty of locals stopping to have a look at the flooded Hanlon Park in Stones Corner @abcbrisbane pic.twitter.com/Aawo9orQw5
Rains in Sydney#sydneyrain #sydneystorm #parramatta pic.twitter.com/3yTHtSgFaA
Continue reading...Embers flare into an out-of-control blaze on ‘another difficult day’ in NSW and in the country around Canberra
• Terror on all sides: inside a firestorm tearing through the Australian bush
The New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian, says the Australian state has experienced “another difficult day” as multiple emergency fires burned across its south-east.
While five emergency warnings were in place on Saturday afternoon for blazes across the NSW south coast and south-east, at 9pm on Saturday evening just one remained at the highest level.
Continue reading...ACT residents near bushfire south of Canberra told to seek shelter as contact lost with large water-bombing plane fighting New South Wales bushfire. Follow latest news and live updates
There’s a steady stream of people arriving at the Moruya Showgrounds, which has been re-opened as an evacuation centre. For a lot of people, it’s becoming a home away from home.
One woman from Congo, just south of here, told me it was her third time here since New Years Eve.
The sky is looking ominous outside the Moruya showground where our reporter on the ground, Michael McGowan, captured this image.
Continue reading...Hail smashes into Parliament House and brings down trees in the ACT, with heavy rainfall hitting NSW, Queensland and Victoria
Australia’s south-east has been lashed by severe thunderstorms and large hailstones that destroyed buildings and cars in Canberra and left two tourists in hospital after they were injured by lightning.
Two supercell thunderstorms brought hail and heavy rain to cities and towns across the east coast on Monday, battering the outer suburbs of Sydney about 3pm, with 4.5cm hailstones recorded and strong winds bringing trees down over cars in the Sutherland area.
Continue reading...Videos posted to social media show the clouds turning day into night in some areas
Damaging winds produced by thunderstorms across central New South Wales have whipped up dust storms that turned daytime into night in some towns.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a series of severe thunderstorm warnings on Sunday evening for inland NSW with the associated winds generating massive dust clouds.
Continue reading...Fire-hit areas receive desperately needed rain, as severe thunderstorms cause flooding in Melbourne
Up to 50mm of rain has fallen across parts of New South Wales and Victoria, dampening bushfires even as dozens more continue to burn.
Fire-hit regions of NSW’s Snowy Valley and south coast, and Victoria’s East Gippsland and north-east, received as much as 15mm of desperately needed rain on Wednesday and Thursday, while severe thunderstorms caused flooding in Melbourne.
Continue reading...This liveblog is now closed
We will leave our coverage of the ongoing bushfire crisis here for the night. A mercifully quiet day on firegrounds across the country.
Here is where things stand:
We have a bit more information about the man who was burned while defending his property near Tumbarumba in New South Wales yesterday.
The man was an RFS volunteer, but he was not engaged in RFS work yesterday. Instead, Guardian Australia understands, he was driving a quad bike around his own property defending against spot fires when he received burns to his leg.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Our live coverage will continue tomorrow morning
We are wrapping up the live blog now, but we will be back at 7am AEDT for the latest on the fires.
As of 9pm, this is what we know.
There’s now what media (but not RFS) refer to as a megablaze in the Kosciuszko national park with three fires at emergency level in that area of southern NSW, just near the Victorian border.
There’s also concern that a fire at watch-and-act level in Faulconbridge in the Blue Mountains could worsen around midnight once the southerly reaches there. People in the Wentworth Falls and Leura areas are being advised to stay alert.