Category Archives: Australia weather

Weather warning in place for WA’s south as cold front could bring snow

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Gusts of up to 91km/h recorded, leaving thousands of properties without power

A severe weather warning for Perth and Western Australia’s Goldfields-Midlands region has been cancelled but remained in place on Friday afternoon for the state’s south, where the first significant cold front of the year could bring snow.

Strong winds in the early hours of Friday ripped the roof off a house on Shorehaven Boulevard in Alkimos on the city’s northern fringe. The owners were not at home.

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Cyclone Trevor: racism claims denied as Northern Territory begins clean-up

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  • Claims fly-in fly-out workers given better accommodation than Indigenous evacuees
  • Cyclone Veronica continues to threaten WA’s Pilbara region

As the Northern Territory begins its big mop-up after Cyclone Trevor, local authorities have hosed down racism claims concerning evacuation efforts.

Trevor forced mass evacuations before it made landfall on Saturday morning as a category four system, with destructive winds gusting up to 250km/h.

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Cyclone Trevor lashes Northern Territory coast with destructive winds

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Residents of Port Hedland and Karratha in Western Australia prepare for Cyclone Veronica, due to hit on Sunday morning

Cyclone Trevor has struck the Northern Territory as a category four system, hammering remote communities with destructive 250 km/h winds and torrential rain.

It was one of two monster storm fronts bearing down on northern Australia this weekend – cyclone Veronica was hurtling towards the Pilbara region in Western Australia.

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Queensland heat records for March broken as state’s south-east soars above 40C

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Gatton, Beaudesert and Archerfield among towns with record-breaking maximum temperatures for the month

Multiple Queensland heat records have been broken for March, with some areas recording temperatures of more than 10 degrees above their average maximum.

Highs of 40C or more in the state’s south-east were recorded for the first time in March, with the town of Gatton reaching 40C on Monday and 41.1C on Tuesday, about 11 degrees above its average maximum temperature for the month.

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Victorian bushfires: 2,000 firefighters battle blazes as third emergency warning issued

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Fire crews rush to build containment lines ahead of cold change expected to bring gusty winds and dry lightning

Firefighters in Victoria are rushing to build containment lines around fires burning east of Melbourne before “gusty and erratic” winds reach the area on Wednesday.

At least nine buildings, including homes, were destroyed in two out of control bushfires at Bunyip and Yinnar South in West Gippsland on Sunday, and an emergency warning was issued for a third near Dargo in the high country in east Gippsland.

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Cyclone Oma: surfers enjoy wild swell but downgraded storm could yet intensify

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‘Unpredictable’ storm could continue to bring abnormally high tides and damaging winds

East coast surfers have defied warnings about large swells whipped up by ex-cyclone Oma, a sub-tropical system that intensified into a category two storm early on Saturday but was downgraded by 11am after taking a south-eastern turn.

The storm, twice the diameter of 2017’s deadly cyclone Debbie, was tracking south towards Lord Howe Island but was predicted to turn and head north again.

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Townsville floods: dam management under scrutiny as experts demand greater preparation

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Study rates this week’s unprecedented monsoonal rainfall as comparable to a one in 1,000-year flood

Australian authorities must plan for more severe floods, experts have warned, amid concern that the management of the Townsville Ross River dam contributed to extensive flooding when a massive amount of water was released downstream.

The decision to open the floodgates when the dam water level reached 43m was based on a 2012 study that warned doing so could cause more extensive property damage during the most extreme flooding events.

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Townsville dam floodgates fully opened, putting more homes at risk

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Residents urged to seek higher ground as water surges at 2,000 cubic metres a minute from Ross river dam

Residents in the Queensland city of Townsville – where up to 500 homes are already under water – were urged to seek higher ground on Sunday as heavy downpours forced the floodgates to the city’s swollen Ross river dam to be completely opened.

A heavy deluge of rain on Sunday pushed dam levels to almost 250% capacity with authorities having to open the floodgates, almost doubling the amount of water flowing out of the catchment.

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Queensland floods: Townsville reels under record water levels as more rain arrives

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There are several more days to go in this flood event, Bureau of Meteorology warns

Queensland authorities have said the state’s north was entering “unprecedented territory” as monsoon rains battered the city of Townsville, setting record flood levels and destroying homes.

As the natural disaster entered its four day, the state emergency service confirmed on Saturday that 80 people had been rescued. It was too early to quantify the damage to homes, although some media reports said at least 50 homes had been affected so far.

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Queensland warned to prepare for ‘dangerous’ flooding as premier declares disaster

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Bureau of Meteorology expecting rainfall totals of up to 400mm per day for multiple days

Residents in northern Queensland have been warned to prepare for more downpours and flooding over the weekend and into next week amid a monsoon that has dumped more than 1.2 metres of rain in some places.

A huge swath of the state stretching 850km from Daintree in far north Queensland to Mackay in the southern end of the tropical belt has been designated as a flood watch zone. The area includes the Great Barrier Reef tourist centre of Cairns as well as parts of Cape York peninsula in the far north.

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Queensland floods: emergency dam release as Townsville hit by 1.1 metre of rain

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Up to 100 more homes face flooding after mayor orders high-risk plan to open floodgates on the Ross River dam

One hundred homes could be flooded in Townsville after the city’s mayor sanctioned the high-risk release of dam water to save the area from more widespread inundation following more than 1.1 metres of rain.

Announcing the emergency measure for the Ross River dam on Friday, the mayor Jenny Hill said there were no guarantees the plan would work. Between 90 and 100 homes downstream from the dam were being evacuated, she added.

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Daintree River flooding: hundreds cut off after deluge breaks peak record

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Ferry crossing in far-north Queensland closed after 500mm of rain in 24 hours pushed river to highest level in 118 years

Hundreds of people remain cut off after a deluge pushed far-north Queensland’s Daintree River to a record level.

The river peaked at close to 12.6 metres on Saturday night, breaking a record that stood for 118 years.

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Sydney’s desalination plant likely to start up to ease water shortages

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Low dam levels and the drought lead New South Wales government to act

Sydney’s desalination plant was likely to be switched on this weekend because of falling dam levels and the drought, the New South Wales resources minister said.

The plant is turned on when water storages drop below 60%.

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Australian heatwave: Adelaide breaks 80-year-old temperature record – live

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With high temperatures also forecast for Victoria and NSW, there are warnings about potential power outages and blackouts, as well as total fire bans amid worsening weather. Follow developments live

Yes please.

Elite marketing by Royal Park Foodland #adelaideheatwave pic.twitter.com/IMMLZdywLq

Just on the issue of heatwaves and climate change, the ABC Melbourne presenter Rafael Epstein has pointed to recent statements from Victoria’s Bureau of Meteorology (Bom).

Just in case someone says hot weather has nothing to do with climate change

"Australia's climate is increasingly influenced by global warming... has warmed by just over one degree since 1910, with most of the warming occurring since 1950."

From @BOM_Vic this month

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‘It’s like hell here’: Australia bakes as record temperatures nudge 50C

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Fears rise for homeless and vulnerable people as communities brace for another week of relentless hot weather

It was 48.9C last Tuesday in Port Augusta, South Australia, an old harbour city that now harvests solar power. Michelle Coles, the owner of the local cinema, took off her shoes at night to test the concrete before letting the dogs out. “People tend to stay at home,” she said. “They don’t walk around when it’s like this.”

It’s easy to see why: in the middle of the day it takes seconds to blister a dog’s paw or child’s foot. In Mildura, in northern Victoria, last week gardeners burned their hands when they picked up their tools, which had been left in the sun at 46C. Fish were dying in the rivers.

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Great Australian heatwave takes a breather – only to return again soon

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Late monsoon and lack of strong cold fronts cited as main reasons behind back-to-back spells of abnormally hot weather

This week’s record-smashing heatwave is over for now in Australia’s south-east, but the reprieve will be short-lived as temperatures build up again in the coming days.

A perfect storm, or rather the lack of one, is partly to blame for the extreme temperatures, with neither the northern monsoons nor the southern cool fronts making their usual appearances.

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Extreme heatwave: all-time temperature records fall across parts of Australia

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Australia had its warmest ever December on record and temperatures this week nudged 50C in some places

Temperature records have been broken in towns across parts of Australia sweltering through a heatwave, which is currently in its fourth day.

Australia also recorded its hottest December on record the Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday in a special climate statement on “the unusual extended period of heatwaves” across much of the country.

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Australia extreme heatwave: ‘code red’ issued as Port Augusta hits 48.9C

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Severe weather conditions forecast to bring maximum temperatures 8C to 16C above average, as three towns record overnight minimums of 33C

Coping with extreme heat: share your photos

Port Augusta in South Australia has reached 48.9C on Tuesday, as a heatwave sets in across much of Australia threatening more record hot days.

All-time highest minimum temperatures have also been broken in three places. Meekatharra in Western Australia and Fowlers Gap and White Cliffs in New South Wales all registered an overnight minimum of 33C on Monday.

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Temperatures to soar as heatwave hits every state and territory

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Much of Australia will bake this week with meteorologists forecasting the hot conditions will last for days in some parts

Every state and territory will bake through a heatwave on Monday with meteorologists saying soaring temperatures will last for days in some parts.

The Bureau of Meteorology said hot days were expected in January but multiple days in a row of temperatures above 40C were unusual.

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Smoke plume from Tasmania bushfire turns sky red over Hobart

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Fire in world heritage area threatens six towns as Victoria experiences dramatic temperature swings

An out of control bushfire burning in the Tasmanian world heritage area has threatened six towns and sent thick smoke across Hobart and Port Arthur, as Victoria experienced a day of wild temperature changes that brought a dangerous bushfire close to east Gippsland towns.

The sky over Hobart turned a dramatic red on Friday morning as the smoke plume stretched for hundreds of kilometres across the state.

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