The Bureau of Meteorology is Australia’s national weather, climate and water agency. Its expertise and services assist Australians in dealing with the harsh realities of their natural environment, including drought, floods, fires, storms, tsunami and tropical cyclones. Through regular forecasts, warnings, monitoring and advice spanning the Australian region and Antarctic territory, the Bureau provides one of the most fundamental and widely used services of government.
The air doesn’t like to be under pressure just like us. The wind is the result of the air trying to escape from high pressure.
Mami Kempe / The Conversation
Wind is just air moving from one place where there is high pressure to another place where there is low pressure.
Only clouds that are tall with big water drops can make rain, but they also stop most of the light, which makes them look grey.
Marcella Cheng/The Conversation
Acacia Pepler, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Andrew Dowdy, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Eun-Pa Lim, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Pandora Hope, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
The US was hit by a ‘bomb cyclone’ last week, bringing icy cold and driving snow. These storms develop very rapidly, forming outside the tropics, typically on continental east coasts in winter.
Australia veered from very wet to very dry in a year of wide-ranging weather extremes.
AAP Image/Mal Fairclough
Last year saw plenty of warm weather around the country, but other notable events included dry months in the southeast, some very cold winter nights, and record-warm dry season days in the north.
Frost affected many crops across WA during September 2016.
WA Department of Primary Industry and Regional Development
We already know that climate change makes heatwaves hotter and longer. But a new series of research papers asks whether there is also a climate fingerprint on frosty spells and bouts of wet weather.
Knowing about hailstones in advance would be preferable.
AAP Image/Dan Peled
As the planet warms, the amount of moisture in the atmosphere is increasing. This will cause a lot more heavy rainfall, even in areas that are becoming drier.
Climate change is already delivering more extremes of wet and dry to the Pacific region.
EPA/FRANCIS R. MALASIG
Scott Power, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Brad Murphy, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; Christine Chung, Australian Bureau of Meteorology; François Delage, Australian Bureau of Meteorology, and Hua Ye, Australian Bureau of Meteorology
New research shows that global warming has already begun to exacerbate extremes of rainfall in the Pacific region – with more to come.
Surf’s up: September storms brought waves, wind and flooding to South Australia.
AAP Image/David Mariuz
The new State of the Climate report outlines Australia’s rising temperatures and its regional rainfall declines - and the trends that are locked in for the coming few decades due to greenhouse emissions.
Tropical Cyclone Carlos approaches Western Australia in February 2011.
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center/Flickr
The Indian Ocean Dipole may be El Nino’s less famous cousin, but that hasn’t stopped it having a profound effect on Australia’s weather since it flipped into a “strong negative phase” two months ago.
Eventually reduced rainfall hit much of Australia thanks to El Niño.
Andrew Watkins