Cold snap ahead as state braces for 'full gamut' of extreme weather

Melbourne could record its coldest April day in nearly a quarter of a century and is on track to eclipse last year's rainfall level in under five months as Victorians brace for heavy downpours, flash flooding and a freezing change this week.

Alisha Bennett and three of her four children - Ava, 12, Lukas, 11,
and Arabella, 5. They are waiting to have their heating fixed.

The Bureau of Meteorology said Thursday's 13-degrees forecast would make it the coldest April day since 1996. It will feel even colder due to strong winds.

"It's certainly unusual for April," bureau senior metrologist Kevin Parkyn said.

Victoria will be hit with heavy rain, beginning on Wednesday in some areas such as the state's north-east ranges, tipped to top 100 millimetres.

Melbourne, particularly the eastern suburbs, could experience 15 to 35 millimetres of rain, the bureau says.

Read the story from The Age by Anthony Colangelo and Michael Fowler - “Cold snap ahead as state braces for 'full gamut' of extreme weather.”

More bike parking than car parking spaces were added in the City of Melbourne last year

More bicycle parking spaces than car parking spaces were created in new buildings within the City of Melbourne for the first time last year, council data shows.

UEM Sunrise international business director Ong Chee Wei
at Aurora Melbourne Central's 700-plus capacity bike locker. 

A total of 3797 bike spaces were added in developments completed within the city in 2019, compared with 3575 car parks.

Since 2015, when the council started keeping track of this information, 15,904 new bike spaces and 22,316 new car spaces have been completed in private developments such as apartment blocks and office buildings. This figure does not include on-street parking or bike hoops on footpaths.

Read the story from The Age by Craig Butt - “More bike parking than car parking spaces were added in the City of Melbourne last year.”

"Unprecedented" - the National Sustainable Living Festival

Should you care about, well, just about anything, then you must make it to this year’s Melbourne-based National Sustainable Living Festival.

However, it is not really just Melbourne’s as it is all over Victoria now, although the major aspects of it city-based.

Check out the program.

The reality of living with 50℃ temperatures in our major cities.

Australia is hot. But future extreme hot weather will be worse still, with new research predicting that Sydney and Melbourne are on course for 50℃ summer days by the 2040s if high greenhouse emissions continue. That means that places such as Perth, Adelaide and various regional towns could conceivably hit that mark even sooner.

Sydney is facing 50℃ summer days by 2040, new research says.

This trend is worrying, but not particularly surprising given the fact that Australia is setting hot weather records at 12 times the pace of cold ones. But it does call for an urgent response.

Most of us are used to hot weather, but temperatures of 50℃ present unprecedented challenges to our health, work, transport habits, leisure and exercise.

Read the story from The Conversation by an Honorary Senior Fellow from the Australian National University, Liz Hanna -  "The reality of living with 50℃ temperatures in our major cities.”

The heat is back: City temperatures to jump 10 degrees above average

Melbourne is about to break its mild November spell with temperatures set to jump 10 degrees above average this week.

The Mallee and Northern Country have a severe fire risk
on Thursday. Mallee also has a severe risk on Wednesday.

The city is expected to hit a top of 27 degrees on Monday, before pushing into the early 30s later in the week.

"Temperatures will be well above average. It has been mild of late, but temperatures will be around 10 degrees above the average," said Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Richard Carlyon.

"It is really jumping this week."

Read the story from The Age by Rachel Eddie - “The heat is back: City temperatures to jump 10 degrees above average.”

Scuffles between protesters and police continue outside Melbourne mining conference

Climate change activists blockading an international mining conference in Melbourne have again had scuffles with police as their protest enters its third day.

Police used pepper spray during their confrontations with protestors.

Hundreds of activists were again positioned outside the International Mining and Resources Conference (IMARC) on Wednesday morning, stationed at different entrances to the Melbourne Convention Exhibition Centre.

At one car park entrance, a woman glued herself to the road. Elsewhere, protesters had minor scuffles with police, including officers on horseback. Police have also used pepper spray.

There were fewer protesters on Wednesday morning than Tuesday, which was the opening day of the conference.

Read the story from The Age by Simone Fox Koob and Rachel Eddie - “Scuffles between protesters and police continue outside Melbourne mining conference.”

‘Quite scary': Rising temperatures threaten Melbourne, Sydney's water security

Sydney and Melbourne face rising threats to their water supplies from climate change as higher temperatures diminish inflows while pushing up demand, according to new research.

Water security for major Australian cities including Melbourne
and Sydney is likely to become more of a challenge under
climate change, scientists say.

A paper published by Environment Research Letters shows a "substantially" amplified risk for Melbourne's water availability if global temperatures rise 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels rather than the 1.5-degree target set by the Paris climate agreement.

Read the story from The Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hannam - “‘Quite scary': Rising temperatures threaten Melbourne, Sydney's water security.”

Melbourne’s green spaces are being lost in rush to build more housing

Melbourne has lost almost 2000 hectares of tree cover in the past five years as suburban backyards are cleared for new housing.

Members of the Upfield Urban Forest group: Anna Sinn,
Greta and Esme Holroyd, Tamar Hopkins and Gerard Morel.
 They are photographed in the Urban Forest near Brunswick station. 

The amount of urban forest that was removed between 2014 and 2018 is roughly equal in size to Reservoir, Melbourne’s largest suburb by area.

The eastern suburbs, long celebrated for their leafiness, experienced the greatest loss of greenery in that time, accounting for more than two-thirds of Melbourne's total tree canopy loss, researchers at RMIT University found.

By contrast, the western suburbs have enjoyed a small recent recovery in green growth, although this has been from a much lower base and has mostly occurred on public land.

Read the story from The Age by Adam Carey - “Melbourne’s green spaces are being lost in rush to build more housing.”

Climate Emergency: What is safe, the 1.5º target, and is the end nigh?

Recently, David Spratt did a talk for Extinction Rebellion Melbourne with the title “Climate Emergency: What is safe, the 1.5º target, and is the end nigh?”? (Answer to last bit: no!)

A video of the talk here. 

The talk is around 25 minutes, followed by Q and A. 

We all smell the smoke, we all feel the heat. This environmental catastrophe is global

A dense haze of smoke crawled over Melbourne and embraced us for a day in its lonely pilgrimage, inviting us to contemplate its mourning rite, its long prayer.

The writer Alexis Wright in Australia. 

This smoke came from a cremation of the natural world - the bushfires from the Bunyip state forest that had begun during days of a major heatwave running across the country. The forest lies 65km east of Melbourne where mountain ash grow, prickly tea-trees, stringy barks and heathland swamps. In the Woiworung mythology of the Kulin nation, the Bunyip is a spirit that punishes bad people who disturb its home in the swamps of the Bunyip River, and according to the Parks Victoria information sheet on the park, local Aboriginal people avoided the area.

Read the story from The Guardian by Alexis Wright - “We all smell the smoke, we all feel the heat. This environmental catastrophe is global.”

‘Pretty unusual': Melbourne to get a full week above 20 degrees

Melbourne is headed for a flash of sunshine with a week above 20 degrees as we head towards winter.

Rosa Sola Molina enjoys the sun at the Fitzroy pool.

Victoria woke up to a chilly morning on Friday, with temperatures down to -1.9 degrees in Omeo. Ballarat dropped to 0.2, while Coldstream was just 0.5 degrees.

But it was the start of what's looking like being an unseasonably warm week, with winter only a few short weeks away.

The mercury in Melbourne is expected to hit 20 on Saturday and stay at 20 or 21 degrees for at least seven days in a row until next Friday.

Read the story from The Age by Rachel Eddie - “‘Pretty unusual': Melbourne to get a full week above 20 degrees.”

Two wannabe federal MPs have staged a Lady Godiva-inspired stunt through the streets of Melbourne, hoping the sight of a naked woman on horseback will shock Australians into doing more about climate change.

Melbourne's modesty ride for the climate.

Senate candidates Paul Wittwer and Kammy Cordner Hunt recruited blonde Sarah Keecher, 31, and a horse, for yesterday’s mid-morning ‘‘modestly’’ naked trot.

Five days ahead of the national poll, the stunt aims to pique voter interest in the policies of the Independents for Climate Action Now party.

It is based on the medieval legend of Lady Godiva, who is said to have worn only her flowing blonde hair as she rode a horse through the English city of Coventry to shame her husband — an earl — into cutting taxes.

Party supporter Ms Keecher paraded past landmarks, including St Paul’s Cathedral and the National Gallery of Victoria to expose what the candidates claim is Federal Government inaction on climate change.

Story from The Shepparton News - “Modesty ride for climate.”

Tears outside PM's office as students skip school to demand climate action again

There were tears outside Scott Morrison's office in Sydney's south, but the biggest crowds were in Melbourne where thousands of students skipped school to demand action on climate change.

Anthony Albanese's office in Marrickville was a hot spot for protesters.

About 70 demonstrations were held around Australia — hundreds turned out at the Prime Minister's office in Cronulla, although most in the crowd there were older than school age.

Stella Brazier, 14, burst into tears when asked about her decision to attend.

"It just upsets me so much because I just don't now if they [politicians] are going to do anything," she said.

Read the story from ABC News by Paige Cockburn - “Tears outside PM's office as students skip school to demand climate action again.”

Adelaide now hottest capital city on record as temperatures soar throughout SA.

Adelaide has hit a sweltering 46.6 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set in Melbourne a decade ago to officially become the hottest capital in the country.

The BOM forecast for Adelaide is "very hot and sunny".

Earlier today, Adelaide topped its 1939 heat record after hitting 46.2C.

The temperature then climbed up to 46.6C, topping the previous capital city record of 46.4C set in Melbourne in 2009.

So far, 22 locations have hit record temperatures including Adelaide Airport, Minlaton, Noarlunga, Snowtown and Port Lincoln.

Read the ABC News story by Sarah Scopelianos and Camron Slessor - "Adelaide now hottest capital city on record as temperatures soar throughout SA.”

Melbourne becomes first city with all council infrastructure powered by renewables

Melbourne has become the first city in Australia to have all of its council-owned infrastructure powered by renewable energy.

The City of Melbourne has switched all its operations
 to renewable energy thanks to power supplied by a
  windfarm near Ararat in western Victoria.

The City of Melbourne switched all its operations to renewable energy on 1 January. The power is supplied by the Crowlands windfarm near Ararat in western Victoria, which was funded through a power purchase agreement with the City of Melbourne and 13 other Melbourne councils and institutions.

The transition means that council libraries, gyms, childcare centres and buildings are now fully powered by renewable energy, as are all of the city’s street lights.

“It’s a pretty nice New Year’s resolution to go to 100% renewable energy,” the deputy mayor, Arron Wood, said.

Read the story from The Guardian by Calla Wahlquist - “Melbourne becomes first city with all council infrastructure powered by renewables.”

How WA's Pilbara region can generate a heatwave that can stretch to Melbourne

A burst of extreme summer heat in southern and eastern Australia, including Adelaide and Melbourne, has been dragged down from Western Australia's Pilbara region, which has experienced record-breaking temperatures in the past fortnight.

Heatwaves generated in the Pilbara have
extended across the country this summer.

Intense heat has been building in the Pilbara, with temperatures in some towns hovering in the mid to high 40s over the past two weeks.

Marble Bar recorded 49.3 degrees Celsius on December 27 — the hottest day in the town since temperature records began in 1901.

Read the ABC News story by Irena Ceranic - “How WA's Pilbara region can generate a heatwave that can stretch to Melbourne.”

Sydney and Melbourne vow to ditch coal power

The cities of Sydney and Melbourne committed themselves to phasing out coal on Thursday, in a move at odds with Australia’s aggressively pro-coal national government.

Sydney has committed to 100% renewable electricity by 2035. 

The country’s two largest cities joined an international coalition of states, regions, cities and businesses who have committed to ending coal power generation.

Australia is the fourth largest coal producer in the world. Its federal government is known for its fierce support for the sector and signalled on Wednesday that it would use taxpayer money to underwrite new coal plants.

Neither city provided a specific end date for coal. Sydney has committed to a 100% renewable supply by 2035.

Read the Climate Home News story by Natalie Sauer - “Sydney and Melbourne vow to ditch coal power.”

Wild weather causes flooding in Melbourne and chaos in Sydney

A thunderstorm sweeping across Melbourne is causing widespread flash flooding prompting numerous calls for assistance.

Sydneysiders are also dealing with traffic chaos as residents along the length of the New South Wales coast are being told to prepare for heavy rainfall, damaging winds and large hailstones.

People in the Melbourne CBD and eastern suburbs are being warned to stay indoors and not to enter floodwaters.

A live map of the city on the VicEmergency website is dotted with requests for assistance due to flooding. Areas include Hawthorn, Richmond, Toorak, Kew, Cremorne and Port Melbourne.

Read the story from The Guardian by Australian Associated Press - “Wild weather causes flooding in Melbourne and chaos in Sydney.

(In his book “Defiant Earth: The fate of humans in the anthropocene” Clive Hamilton quotes climatologist Kevin Trenberth, who said: “All weather events are affected by [human-induced] climate change because the environment in which they occur is warmer and moister than it used to be.” 

Surely, what is happening up and down Australia’s east-coast is climate change made visible - Robert McLean)

Hans understands

From the Melbourne Age:

A moral obligation' – MCG goes carbon neutral for finals season.

Few images are as emblematic of Melbourne as the MCG, floodlit and heaving with tens of thousands of punters.  Packed to the rafters. But this spectacle comes at a cost.

Staff in the MCG control room monitor energy
 use at the ground during the finals series.

Have you ever wondered how much electricity is consumed to power those light towers? Or how much carbon is emitted in transporting those fans to the ground, heating their pies, cooling their beers or frying their chips?

The Melbourne Cricket Club, which runs the venue, has. It says the 'G and its surrounding Yarra Park precinct consumes about 1.65 million kWh of electricity during the finals alone. Last September, that amounted to 20,531 tonnes of carbon emissions.

Read the story by Peter Hannam from The Age - “‘A moral obligation' – MCG goes carbon neutral for finals season.”