Experts warn extreme bushfire weather risk growing

Climate experts have warned the weather system fuelling this week's catastrophic bushfires across south-eastern Australia will be up to four times more likely to occur under forecast levels of global warming.

Hot, dry westerly winds created extreme bushfire
 conditions in south-east Australia this week.

This particular weather event occurs when a low-pressure system from the Southern Ocean races north and collides with a high-pressure system on the NSW coast. The two systems then force hot, dry air from inland Australia out towards the coast, resulting in strong westerly winds for days, before an abrupt southerly change when the cold front sweeps past.

Read the story from The Age by Mike Foley - “Experts warn extreme bushfire weather risk growing.”

Hurricane Harvey: evacuations under way as storm heads for Texas

Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, oil refineries are expected to shut down and 700 members of the National Guard are being called up as Hurricane Harvey, the most powerful weather system to hit the US in almost 12 years, barrels towards Texas.

Hurricane Harvey approaches the coast of Texas
from the Gulf of Mexico as it strengthens to a
category 3 storm. 

Several counties along the Gulf coast, including Nueces county, Calhoun county and Brazoria county, have ordered mandatory evacuations in low-lying areas.

The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, has activated about 700 members of the state National Guard and put military helicopters on standby in Austin and San Antonio in preparation for search and rescues and emergency evacuations.

Harvey, which is due to make landfall late on Friday, would be the first hurricane to hit the Texas coast since Hurricane Ike in 2008.

The head of the National Weather Service said the storm posed “a grave risk to the folks in Texas”. 

Read The Guardian story - “Hurricane Harvey: evacuations under way as storm heads for Texas.”

Melbourne weather: steamy, stormy days ahead

A summer storm rolls across
the city on Christmas Eve.

The weather system that flooded central Australia, prompting Uluru to be evacuated, is about to bring heavy rain and damaging winds to Victoria.

A weaker version of the system will affect western Victoria early on Wednesday morning, delivering rainfall totals that could be as high as 50 millimetres in just six hours.

The rainfall is likely to start around midnight, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with the heaviest falls expected between 3am and 9am Wednesday.

High rainfall is expected to move down from the north on Thursday and Friday, with possible flash flooding and thunderstorms.

The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe weather warning for much of Victoria late on Tuesday afternoon, urging people to be prepared for damaging winds and heavy rainfall in the Central weather district, Mallee, South West, North Central and Wimmera, and for parts of other forecast districts

Read Darren Gray’s story in the Melbourne Age - “Melbourne weather: steamy, stormy days ahead.”