AusSMC Briefing: Heatwaves, downpours and drought: what's behind all the weird weather?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2016-02-08 12:30

Australia; NSW; VIC

Credit: AMOS / ARCCSS

*Briefing recording now available - see below*
When it comes to the world's weather, it seems that abnormal is the new normal. The latest research from the Bureau of Meteorology reveals that the five year period between 2011 and 2015 was the world's hottest on record, a period marked by numerous weird weather events around the globe, including extreme rainfall in southeast Australia in 2012 and ongoing droughts in Queensland and New South Wales. The past two decades have also seen the number of marine heatwaves, and their duration, increase. Since 1900, marine heatwave frequency and duration has doubled. But how certain can we be that climate change was responsible for such events?

Media release

From: Australian Science Media Centre

Join us for this online briefing, which brings together some of Australia's top climate scientists to discuss their most recent research on extreme weather as they meet in Melbourne for the Australian Meteorological & Oceanographic Society / ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science (AMOS / ARCCSS) National Conference 2016.

The briefing will discuss the following issues:

2011 - 2015 was the hottest five year period on record around the world
Is weird weather really becoming more common?
Did climate change cause extreme rainfall in southeast Australia in 2012 and the ongoing droughts in Queensland and New South Wales
The role of the El Niño / La Niña in recent weird weather events
Increases in the frequency and duration of marine heatwaves over the past 100 years

Speakers:

Dr Blair Trewin is a Senior Climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology
Dr Andrew Kingis a Climate Extremes Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, University of Melbourne.
Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrickis a DECRA Research Fellow at the Climate Change Research Centre, University of New South Wales

Date: Tue 09 Feb 2016
Start Time: 10:30am AEDT
Duration: Approx 45 min
Venue: Online

Attachments

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Other Australian Science Media Centre, Web page Link to briefing recording

Journal/
conference: AMOS / ARCCSS National Conference 2016

Organisation/s: Bureau of Meteorology, The University of Melbourne, The University of New South Wales

Funder:

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