During the 2020 La Nina, many areas of Australia received near average to severely below-average rainfall, particularly during November. CLEX researchers found that several compounding factors contributed to the drier-than anticipated spring conditions.
The Northern Australia Climate Program (NACP) is an innovative drought and climate variability research, development, and extension (RD&E) program to enhance business resilience and build capacity to manage climate risk across the northern Australian red meat industry.
An unusual southern stratospheric warming event amplified the conditions that led to the Black Summer bushfires of 2019/20. CLEX researchers explored how frequently these rare warming events may occur with climate change.
Maximum temperatures in Australia during spring have exceeded historic records on multiple occasions in recent years. Understanding what drives these high temperatures may lead to better forecasts of extreme heat in the future.
It has been remarkable how much we have achieved in this extraordinarily difficult year. Research coming out of the Teleconnections and Variability program over the past four months has strongly focused on how influences in one part of the world can have direct impacts on another.
Despite the pandemic, the recent few months have seen a range of triumphs with completed PhDs being prominent among them. Our research has revealed the powerful influence of small scale and large scale ocean processes on our current and future climate.
The Drought program farewells Michael Roderick who has retired and looks over an extensive range of research that has been carried out despite the global pandemic. Some significant model improvements, new datasets and deeper insights into past and future climates show the depth of the research effort.
Ocean salinity could be an indicator of major rain events before IOD or ENSO events have peaked. This raises the prospect that long term forecasts for Australia could be improved by analysing sea surface salinity in the Indian and Pacific oceans.
All data sources agree that positive IOD events are becoming stronger and occur more often and that the mean-state of the Indian Ocean is moving towards a more positive IOD-like state due to enhanced warming in the west compared to the east.
A lot has happened over the past few months with the publication of high-profile and challenging research and the continuing growth, development and recognition for the RP4 team.