News

  • Aerial view of rugged coastline with green farmland meeting cliffs and turquoise ocean waves.

    A regional climate model for high-impact weather 

    Australia’s climate simulator (ACCESS-NRI) has released a fully supported version of a regional climate model that enables researchers to understand high-impact weather events like hurricanes, floods and droughts, which are not captured by the wide-angle lens of global climate models. Regional climate models are game changers when it comes to simulating high-impact weather events, and…

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  • City street lined with tall leafy trees casting shadows on a pedestrian walkway, with high-rise apartment buildings in the background.

    Plant trees, add solar: How cities can fight urban heat

    A combination of tree cover at street level and rooftop solar panels may be the best approach to combat urban heat in a warming climate, new research has indicated.  Scientists from Canada, the United States, Spain and Australia looked at how three cities with different climates – Phoenix, Toronto, and Miami – can deal with…

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  • Close-up of raindrops falling from the edge of a roof, with a blurred background of green trees and power lines, creating a calm, rainy-day atmosphere.

    Understanding rainfall variability in the tropics

    The tropics, located near the Equator, are known for their high temperatures and abundant rainfall. However, not all places in the tropics are equal, and one key reason for this is the distribution of water vapour, or humidity, across the globe, writes Monash University PhD student Corey Robinson. In general, air near the surface flows…

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  • Rainy aerial view of Sydney’s skyline, including the Sydney Tower and Sydney Opera House, seen through a helicopter window with raindrops on the glass.

    Climate models are letting our cities down

    Global climate models represent our coastal cities as oceans, while regional models fail to represent their true complexity, posing a barrier to future planning and resilience, writes 21st Century Weather Chief Investigator Negin Nazarian. In Australia, 87% of our population lives along the coast, most in cities that drive much of Australia’s economic activity. Understanding…

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  • A lone eucalyptus tree stands in the middle of an arid red-soil landscape in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia, with sparse shrubs scattered across the terrain. Rugged mountains rise in the background under a partly cloudy blue sky.

    Melissa Hart among Wellcome Trust grant recipients

    Please join us in congratulating 21st Century Weather’s Associate Director Melissa Hart and her collaborators, who have received AU$4.2 million in Wellcome Trust grant funding to research the heat health burden on First Nations communities in under-resourced remote Australia. Led by Associate Professor Supriya Mathew of the Menzies School of Health Research, the funded project…

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