Weather systems that drive much of southern Australia's rain have declined over the decades

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2024-10-23 00:01

Australia; NSW

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Low pressure weather systems are an important source of rainfall for southern Australia, and international researchers say they've been on the decline since the mid 20th Century. The team have used various strategies to analyse long-term trends in lows from 1959-2023, and say there are decreasing trends over that time period along with decreases in rainfall associated with those low pressure systems. The researchers say on the east coast of southern Australia, decreasing lows can explain more than 70% of rainfall changes we've seen since the 1960s. They say further research should investigate the influence of human-driven climate change in these trends, and whether this decline is related to other forms of global climate change.