With projected increases in temperature in the future, the amount of water vapour that can be held at saturation increases exponentially. This increased capacity by the atmosphere to hold water (or increased vapour pressure deficit), has important implications […]
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This study presents a comprehensive investigation of historical and future changes in flood hazard based on a solid evaluation of model performance. Using a comprehensive streamflow database of more than 30,000 gauges across the globe, the study shows that […]
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Summer might be more than six weeks away, but out-of-control bushfires have already torn across parts of eastern Australia in recent days, destroying homes and threatening lives. Firefighters battle bushfires in Angourie, northern New South Wales, on September […]
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Australia has one of the most sophisticated water markets in the world, particularly notable for the ways in which government can return water to the environment. Water markets allow the return of this water through two main mechanisms. […]
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There is an urgent need to understand and predict how the world around us is affected by climate change and the extremes of droughts and flooding rains. The Australian Government’s National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy NCRIS addresses this […]
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Rainfall observations are important inputs for hydrometeorological applications. However, preparing a spatially and temporally consistent rainfall dataset is still a challenge because of sparse point measurements. One potentially valuable source of rainfall data with consistent spatial and temporal […]
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The susceptibility of vegetation to wildfire depends on its water content relative to its dry mass: the live fuel moisture content (LFMC). The higher the LFMC, the longer vegetation will take to ignite and for wildfire to spread. […]
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Current Australian drought policy aims to promote preparedness and resilience in favour of costly disaster-relief based strategies. Recent conditions have highlighted a shortfall in this approach, with Federal Government aid contributions exceeding $1 billion near the end of […]
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When designing urban water infrastructure, planners rely on historical rain gauge observations to quantify the intensity, duration and frequency of rainfall. However, with rapid urbanisation and a changing climate this infrastructure is becoming increasingly susceptible to rainfall events […]
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Globally the cooling of the atmosphere by radiation is balanced by its heating from condensation and heat transfer from the Earth’s surface. This study is the first to investigate this so-called Radiative Convective Equilibrium – or RCE – […]
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Across large parts of Australia and the world flood magnitudes have decreased while rainfalls have increased. Our recently published research explains this apparent paradox: soils (or antecedent conditions) are becoming drier before it rains, meaning that, when it […]
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Most instrumental weather data that we use to study rainfall in Australia only extend back to 1900, which makes it hard to capture the full range of our highly variable climate. In this new study we have used […]
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Australia has just experienced its hottest summer on record as well as a succession of climate extremes. Currently, a vast area of New South Wales is drought-affected. Floods have devastated vast sections of Queensland while bushfires and cyclones […]
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Australia’s rainfall is among the most variable rainfall in the world. The highest rainfall is received along the coast; an area that supports more than 84% of the population of the country. Australia has seen some major changes […]
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A lack of guidelines around groundwater modelling has led to inaccurate and unreliable results, a new paper has found. In Australia, groundwater makes up about 17% of accessible water and accounts for more than 30% of the country’s […]
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As heat extremes become more commonplace, understanding the physiological response of the vegetation to temperature becomes more important. Recent experimental evidence – including collaborative work done between Western Sydney University, CLEX and other institutes – has shown that […]
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Coupling between the land surface and the atmosphere can affect how much and when it rains. One way coupling has been uncovered in nature is through identifying when the amount of rainfall has been affected by how wet […]
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Most people imagine that as temperature rises, evaporation increases. While that is true under specific circumstances, in general this is not the case. This is because when evaporation increases it causes a surface to cool and thereby reducing […]
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As the planet warms, subtropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere, including parts of southern Australia and southern Africa, are drying. These trends include major drought events such as Cape Town’s “Day Zero” in 2018. Climate projections suggest this […]
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