Adventure Ausrama Blog

While a new very strong El Niño is on the way, fears of continuing La Niña are real as well. Although Australia is known as a drought country, severe floods are damaging. This is because the continent is flat with a few mountains in the east of the country. If the El Niño does not arrive flooding will continue. Furthermore, the drought in the US will cause further damage to their economy. The odd thing at the moment is that Australia has drought inland with flooding along the coast. This isn't s normal state of affairs. It could be due to global warning. We have had a very long intermediate period where La Niña persists and El Niño threatens. Research shows that La Niña will return every 13 years instead of 23 years. It seems to Australians that La Niña has been here for ever with the long intermediate period persisting. There are extreme El Niño and La Niña though. And it is these that do the most damage economically and socially. ✴ Science by Ty Buchanan ✴

As carbon pollution continues what will happen to the Australian climate? We have just had the warmest May on record and are heading for the mildest winter ever. This will probably mean a stinking hot summer. Heat is rising while places like the United States are getting extremely cold conditions. This is mainly due to a permanent change in the Gulf Stream. Because Australia is large open savannah, it does store carbon, but storage is only short term. It will be released again further down the track. Ironically, plants are absorbing more anthropogenic CO2 (man-made) than ever before. It seems the high level of carbon is making flora work harder. Forget pollution from cars it is maintenance of the Amazon Rain Forest that is important. As more land is cleared to make money residual carbon in the atmosphere will rise. A change "is" taking place. Arid areas like Australia are getting greener. Warmer conditions seem to increase rain and plant growth. This

We are getting very hot conditions with flooding. This is seen by many as unusual. Australia has very hot dry weather followed by cooler wet weather in its regular pattern. There is a 100 year cycle in El Niño and La Niña events.  In other words severity peaks every century. Australia is currently in a transition period.  The La Niña could continue or it could change to El Niño.  There is presently a lot of rain. Oddly there is also a drought inland. If it were an El Niño cycle things would be a lot worse. It seems global warming is making La Niña years very hot. Australia is now getting hot La Niñas along with very hot El Niños. This is bad for the whole world because all continents are affected by weather in the Pacific Ocean. Some El Niños reach a critical temperature with dry periods being severe. Global warming means that more of them will go over this critical point. The average of extreme El Niños has been one in twenty years. Australians fear hot dry periods.

Ten years ago the ozone layer was a major topic. "The ozone is decreasing," headlines proclaimed. Then, it was just as quickly forgotten. It may not be growing so much but the ozone layer is still causing problems. The weather has been altered. Wet and dry extremes are the result. Desalination programs have been put on the backburner for now. They will be needed soon as the cycle swings back to dry. The ozone hole shifts high-altitude wind circulation southward. Most notable for Australia has been the movement of the Southern Hemisphere jet stream to the south. This has severe effects. For example, in the north Britain has got very cold winters in recent years due to blocking of the Northern stream. Estimates are that Australia's weather has changed by a magnitude of 35 per cent. More rain has been brought here. With the impact from greenhouse gases this water evaporates very quickly, so the overall impact is dryness. With the combination of ozone, greenhouse