Dry times are worrying

From The Country News of Tuesday, June 19 -

Arctic has warmest winter on record: 'It's just crazy, crazy stuff

The Arctic winter has ended with more news that is worrying even the scientists who watch the effects of climate change closely.

Frozen fields on the Lofoten Islands in the Arctic Circle in northern
 Norway. Scientists say conditions in the region are unprecedented.

The region experienced its warmest winter on record. Sea ice hit record lows for the time of year, new US weather data revealed on Tuesday.

“It’s just crazy, crazy stuff,” said Mark Serreze, director of the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado, who has been studying the Arctic since 1982. “These heat waves – I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Experts say what’s happening is unprecedented, part of a global warming-driven cycle that probably played a role in the recent strong, icy storms in Europe and the north-eastern US.

Read the story from The Guardian - “Arctic has warmest winter on record: 'It's just crazy, crazy stuff’.”

Australian weather forecasters say autumn will be dry and warm

A dry and warmer-than-average autumn has been forecast for nearly all of Australia, worrying farmers in southern states hoping for rain after a hot summer.

The chance of above-median maximum
temperatures forecast for the Australian autumn.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest outlook, released on Thursday, has predicted higher temperatures across the country – apart from eastern New South Wales and the upper Northern Territory.

Rainfall is also forecast to be lower than usual in much of central Queensland, the southern NT, north-west Victoria and parts of Western Australia. The bureau’s initial autumn report said these areas had a 70% chance of below-median rainfall.

Agata Imielska, a climatologist from the bureau, said the dry season was a result of high-pressure systems and the weakening of the La Niña system in the Pacific Ocean.

Read the story by Naaman Zhou on The Guardian - “Australian weather forecasters say autumn will be dry and warm.”