EU monitor says global temperatures were 1.75C above preindustrial levels, extending run of unprecedented highs
A run of record-breaking global temperatures has continued, even with a La Niña weather pattern cooling the tropical Pacific.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month was the warmest January on record, with surface – air temperatures 1.75C above preindustrial levels.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Meteorologists say climate change and the amount of heat being added to the oceans make predictions based on the past less reliable
The Bureau of Meteorology is shifting the way it communicates about climate phenomena such as El Niño and La Niña, because global heating is making predictions based on the past less reliable.
This week the bureau kept the country on a “La Niña watch” and said if the climate system in the Pacific does develop, it’s likely to be short-lived and weak.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...Weather bureau says there is now a 50/50 chance of La Niña forming this year
Australia has been placed on La Niña watch by the Bureau of Meteorology with early signs the climate pattern linked to cooler and wetter conditions across most of the country could form later this year.
The bureau said there was now a 50/50 chance of La Niña forming this year with sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific steadily cooling since December.
Continue reading...Seven months after an El Niño associated with hotter and drier weather got under way, conditions have returned to neutral
The Bureau of Meteorology has declared the El Niño weather event of 2023-24 to be over, with odds increasing that its cooler counterpart, the La Niña, will return by the coming spring.
Conditions in the central equatorial Pacific have now returned to neutral conditions, about seven months after the El Niño had got under way, the bureau said on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Global temperature was warmest on record last month as Britain faced cloudy and wet conditions
At the start of this week Nasa announced that July 2023 had the highest global temperature recorded for that month since 1880. It was also the warmest month on record.
Readers in the UK may find this hard to believe, given the wet and generally miserable conditions in the country that month. Britain received 19% less sunshine and 170% more rain compared with the 1991-2020 average.
Continue reading...New report suggests glut will last years, even if Beijing drops tariffs early, while prices of Australian red wine grapes plummet by more than half
Australia has an oversupply equivalent to more than 2.8bn bottles of wine – a little more than 100 bottles per person – after the trade dispute with China slashed exports to the biggest consumer of Australian wines.
The excess wine is being stored in large steel vats in wineries across Australia, equating to 859 Olympic wine-filled swimming pools.
Sign up to receive Guardian Australia’s fortnightly Rural Network email newsletter
Continue reading...Smoke aerosols from the fires interacted with clouds to cool the south-eastern Pacific, helping the wet weather pattern to form
Smoke from Australia’s 2019-20 black summer fires may have resulted in the rare “triple dip” La Niña that lasted from 2020 to 2022, research suggests.
Modelling from scientists at the US National Center for Atmospheric Research has found that smoke aerosols from the bushfires interacted with clouds to cool surface waters over the south-eastern subtropical Pacific Ocean.
Continue reading...The city is just eight days off its longest streak of days below 30, the last being in February 2022
After 330 days, months of downpours and unusually cool weather, Sydney is finally staring down the barrel of a 30C day.
Wednesday is forecast to be the first day in nearly a year where temperatures are expected to top 30C at Observatory Hill, in the heart of the city, ending Sydney’s longest cool streak in over three decades.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup
Continue reading...Forbes braced for second inundation in a fortnight as woman’s body found in Eugowra flood waters after ‘wall of water’ decimates NSW town
Communities in New South Wales are braced for more flooding with warnings of historic river rises and prolonged peaks in the state’s central west.
Across the state, the authorities have issued 117 warnings and 23 “evacuate now” orders, including for central western Forbes and Gooloogong, Gunnedah in the north-east and the southern border town of Moama.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...Modellers say those within 4km of an infected piggery potentially vulnerable, meaning 740,546 people at risk of mosquito-borne virus
Warming temperatures combined with flood waters could leave almost 750,000 Australians vulnerable to Japanese encephalitis – a disease that until last year was confined to Asia and far-northern Australia.
The mosquito-borne disease was first detected on the Australian mainland in 1998, but its range expanded dramatically earlier this year. Cases were reported in dozens of southern piggeries (pigs are one of the main carriers of the virus) and there were also 31 confirmed cases in humans and six deaths.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Twice the number of sites have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, government report finds
One in five swimming spots in New South Wales have been rated as having “poor” or “very poor” pollution levels, including Sydney’s popular Coogee beach, after the state experienced its wettest summer in a decade.
Twice the number of beaches, lakes and lagoons have been exposed to concerning levels of pollution and sewage since 2019, according to the annual state of the beaches report released by the NSW Department of Planning and Environment.
Get our morning and afternoon news emails, free app or daily news podcast
Continue reading...Daniel Andrews says 500 homes have been flooded and another 500 have been isolated. This blog is now closed
An estimated 500 homes are flooded in Victoria with number expected to grow: Daniel Andrews
Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has been on ABC radio Melbourne this morning, providing listeners with an update on the floods.
Obviously this has been a very, very significant flood event and it’s far from over. There’s a little bit more rainfall but as that weather event passes through, the real challenge is waters continuing to rise and more and more houses being inundated, more and more communities being closed off, becoming isolated, then of course we move to clean up and all of those issues.
We think there’s about 500 homes that are flooded, we think there are another 500 that have been isolated across the state. But I would just say they’re very early estimates and the aerial intelligence gathering choppers are up in the air now ... they’ll be doing all their reports back to the state control centre. So I’d say those numbers are absolutely certain to grow. And indeed, we’re still asking people to leave in some areas. There have been important, important evacuation notices have been issued in a number of communities. So those numbers will go up. That’s why we’ve got nine important relief centres opening and 50 sandbag collection points. There’s an enormous amount of work going on.
Continue reading...At least 52 missing as military and rescue personnel searched for survivors
At least 25 people died and 52 were missing after five small rivers in central Venezuela flooded due to heavy rains, the government said.
The downpour on Saturday night swept large tree trunks and debris from surrounding mountains into the town of Tejerias, 67km south-west of the capital, Caracas, damaging businesses and farmland, according to the vice-president, Delcy Rodríguez.
Continue reading...Dozens of rivers still flooding and evacuation orders in place across state as reprieve from rain set to be short-lived
Rain has eased over much of New South Wales but dozens of rivers are still flooding and evacuation orders are in place as authorities forecast another rain system to arrive midweek.
People across the state were forced to flee their homes over the weekend amid rising flood waters and thousands of others are poised to leave if ordered as dams spill and river peaks move downstream.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...This blog is now closed
Dutton on his answer to filling the gap should stage-three tax cuts go through
Dutton:
If you look at even post lockdowns on a month by month basis, you can see months where we’ve gone back into surplus, so the settings we have in government, our instinct as Liberals, as a Coalition when it comes to budget management are vindicated.
When you look at where we are with a 50-year low unemployment, when you look at the strength of the underlying indicators here in Australia, that is a very significant contrast to where the UK or US budget is, and this government inherited a very strong position after nine years of Coalition management.
David, we went to the last election with a promise and I’m not in the business of breaking promises. The prime minister can contemplate it. He looked the Australian public in the eye and it seems he wasn’t so genuine and that he was prepared to make that statement.
I want to see the prime minister honour his commitment and not lie to the Australian people.
Continue reading...With many catchments soaked and more rain on the way, authorities say waterways are ‘sensitive to any future rainfall’
New South Wales is bracing for another week of thunderstorms, gusty winds and renewed flooding, with authorities warning flooding in some areas is expected to continue for several months.
The wet weather was expected to return to south-western parts of the state from Monday afternoon, deepening throughout Tuesday and Wednesday as the trough moved across to the coast.
Continue reading...Weather experts predict already soaked river catchments will remain flooded over coming months
Communities on the Queensland-New South Wales border are on high alert for flash flooding after more than 20cm of rain fell in three hours in some areas.
An intense weather system moved east overnight across the Gold Coast and the already soaked NSW’s northern rivers, prompting emergency text messages to be sent to some residents.
Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning
Continue reading...Bureau of Meteorology forecasts heavy rain in spring driven by negative Indian Ocean Dipole and warm waters in the north
Australia could be lashed with more rain and possible floods for the next three months with La Niña conditions predicted to return for a rare third consecutive year.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology raised the El Niño-Southern Oscillation La Niña outlook from “watch” to “alert” on Tuesday afternoon.
Continue reading...