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https://theconversation.com/rain-one-minute-heatwave-the-next-how-climate-whiplash-drives-unpredictable-fire-weather-273104>
"After a weekend of extreme heat and windy conditions, more than 30 blazes were
still burning in Victoria and New South Wales as of Sunday evening, including
major fires in the Otways, near the town of Alexandra in central Victoria, and
on the NSW-Victoria border near Corryong.
And in northern Australia, Cyclone Koji brought heavy rain and fierce wind
gusts as it crossed the coast Sunday into north Queensland.
What role does climate change play in supercharging extreme weather conditions,
such as these? The evidence shows it not only turns up the thermostat, it also
makes the climate system more erratic.
One emerging aspect of such climate change is “hydroclimatic whiplash” – sudden
and often frequent transitions between very dry and very wet conditions. It can
feel like the climate system is toggling between lots of different states:
floods one minute, bushfires the next.
Australians are familiar with the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), the
climate phenomenon in the Pacific Ocean with El Niño (warm) and La Niña (cool)
phases that significantly impact global weather. But climate change means our
weather is now operating in new and novel ways.
The forecast for this fire season was not as calamitous as it is proving to be.
That’s not a criticism – we have to expect the unexpected. Rather than using
the term climate change, which implies a steady and predictable shift, I now
prefer the term “climate instability”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
