The Earth Systems and Climate Change Hub has produced four synthesis brochures outlining the latest knowledge and Hub research on extreme weather events, including tropical cyclones, east coast lows, bushfires and thunderstorms, and how these events may change in the future as our climate continues to warm.
New projections show a clear trend towards more dangerous conditions for bushfires in Australia into the future, as well as increased pyroconvection risk factors for some regions of southern Australia.
New ESCC Hub research published in Nature Climate Change examines future high monthly mean temperature records that will be so extreme they will not have been experienced previously. It provides projections of the rate of extreme temperature record setting and record ‘smashing’ (when a record exceeds the previous record by a large amount) over the coming century.
Hub researchers found that conditions favourable for bushfires to cause their own storms (which can lead to extremely dangerous bushfires) have increased in south-eastern Australia since 1979.
Analysis of 67 years of fire weather data shows a clear link between climate change and bushfire conditions.
Hub researchers are using a combination of observations and modelling to better understand the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
A new fire weather dataset will inform our understanding of the climate changes that are already occurring, and those still to come.