CLEX, the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes

The Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes (CLEX) is an international research consortium of five Australian universities and a network of outstanding national and international partner organizations supported by the Australian Research Council.

Climate extremes are the confluence of high impact weather and climate variability. The Centre will improve our understanding of the processes that trigger or enhance extremes and build this understanding into our modelling systems. The improved predictions of climate extremes will help Australia cope with extremes now and in the future.

Breaking news

How climate change impacts prescribed burning days

Picture (above): Fire in the forest. Credit: Deep Rajwar (Pexels) As the Bushfire Royal Commission investigates the deadly “Black Summer” and how it could have been prevented,...

Need for prediction of marine heatwaves

Picture (above): Wave in sunlight. Credit: Hernan Pauccara An international research team that includes researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and the...

Research brief: Decomposing temperature extremes errors in CMIP5 and CMIP6 models

… and figuring out which models simulate temperature extremes well for the right reasons. Picture (above): Utah’s Green River flows south across the Tavaputs Plateau (top) before...

Marine heatwaves affecting the ocean’s tiniest organisms

Picture (above): Phytoplankton. Credit: Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (Flickr - CC BY NC ND 2.0) Tiny microbes at the base of the ocean food chain will be...

Research briefs

Research brief: Predicting the risk of drought-induced tree mortality in Australia

Photo: Dead tree. Credit: Indigo Skies Photography (Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.) Australia has recently experienced two of the worst droughts on record (Millennium Drought, 2000–2009...

Research brief: Future directions for the Indian Ocean Observing System

Photo (above): Indian Ocean atol by Roberto Nickson (Unsplash). The Indian Ocean is warming faster than any other ocean, and its climate is uniquely driven by monsoons and...

Research brief: Mapping transpiration in climate models

Transpiration – the evaporation of water from plants –  is one of the dominant forces in the Earth’s water cycle. To get a sense of how it will change in response to...

Research brief: Decomposing temperature extremes errors in CMIP5 and CMIP6 models

… and figuring out which models simulate temperature extremes well for the right reasons. Picture (above): Utah’s Green River flows south across the Tavaputs Plateau (top) before...

CLEX Research programs

Extreme rainfall

Drought

Heatwaves and cold air outbreaks

Climate variability and teleconnections