News
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A wave of AI slop is coming for climate science—the best defence is to retain and upskill our scientists
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools are fundamentally reshaping climate science. They have changed the way we code, simulate future climate, and gather and interpret climate observations. Used without sufficient scrutiny, these tools can inject errors into climate information and the decisions built on it. The solution, though, is not to resist AI,…
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Do cities receive more rain, and what are the satellites missing?
Sydney has experienced more than its fair share of flash flooding and heavy downpours in recent years, prompting an obvious question: does the city itself influence the rain that falls on it? Can concrete, roads and high-rise buildings actually change local rainfall? For anyone impacted by extreme precipitation in urban areas, it is more than…
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Where El Niño or La Niña forms in the Pacific is crucial to Australian impacts
When it comes to rainfall impacts on Australia, not all El Niño events affect us in the same way. Some leave large parts of eastern Australia dry, while others have a stronger influence on the Northern Territory. Scientists have recognised these different types of El Niño for years, but understanding exactly why they produce distinctly…
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Australia’s future electricity grid may be more resilient to climate variability than expected
On hot summer afternoons or still winter mornings, Australia’s electricity grid increasingly depends on the weather. As more wind turbines and solar farms replace fossil fuels, understanding how climate variability affects electricity supply has become an important question. And with Australia building an electricity system powered increasingly by wind and solar, one question has become…
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Member Profile: Meet Tim Raupach, proud member of the thunderstorm nerd club
When it comes to making the most of his involvement with 21st Century Weather, self-confessed thunderstorm nerd Dr Tim Raupach is a strict adherent to the three Cs – collaboration, community and Cumulus. An Industry Scientia Senior Lecturer with the Institute for Climate Risk and Response at the University of New South Wales in Sydney,…