Recent Australian droughts may be the worst in 800 years

Australia is a continent defined by extremes, and recent decades have seen some extraordinary climate events. But droughts, floods, heatwaves, and fires have battered Australia for millennia. Are recent extreme events really worse than those in the past?

Places such as Berri were affected by Millennium
Drought, caused by low cool-season rain.
New materials and techniques are now being
used to observe drought causes and water
patterns in Australia’s history to help the future.

In a recent paper, we reconstructed 800 years of seasonal rainfall patterns across the Australian continent. Our new records show that parts of Northern Australia are wetter than ever before, and that major droughts of the late 20th and early 21st centuries in southern Australia are likely without precedent over the past 400 years.

This new knowledge gives us a clearer understanding of how droughts and flooding rains may be changing in the context of a rapidly warming world.

Read the story from The Conversation - “Recent Australian droughts may be the worst in 800 years.”