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October 29, 2025 9:29 pm
Published by Iain Strachan
The 2025 State of the Climate Report has been released, indicating that 22 of the Earth’s 35 vital signs are being pushed to critical levels, as the planet reaches its hottest temperature in the last 125,000 years. Warming is accelerating, the report highlights, while ocean heat content, the volume of tree cover lost to fire and fossil fuel consumption rates all reached record highs. Meanwhile, the crucial Atlantic Meridional Ocean Overturning Circulation continues to weaken and may fail. The seventh... Read More
October 28, 2025 10:17 pm
Published by Iain Strachan
When droughts take hold, they don’t just dry out the land, they strain food security, damage economies and affect both our physical and mental health. Australia is no stranger to these impacts, with the country frequently experiencing severe and widespread droughts. Recent decades have left Australia with lasting environmental, economic and social scars of drought: from enduring the longest drought in the historical record (the “Millennium drought”; 1997-2009), to the most severe (the “Tinderbox drought”; 2017-2019). And now with another drought... Read More
October 13, 2025 9:12 am
Published by Iain Strachan
Individual fossil fuel projects can no longer be considered ‘too small to matter’, with researchers now able to link harmful impacts on our society and environment to each new investment in coal and gas extraction. The majority of Australia’s new fossil fuel projects describe their anticipated greenhouse gas outputs as ‘negligible’ in the context of global emissions, and claim they’re unable to measure contributions to global warming, while also ignoring expected impacts. However, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)... Read More
September 29, 2025 1:32 am
Published by Iain Strachan
21st Century Weather Deputy Director Negin Nazarian has received the 2025 Global Environmental Change Early Career Award from the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The AGU is the world’s largest Earth and Space science association. It celebrates individuals and teams through its annual honours and recognition program for accomplishments in research, education, science communication and outreach. AGU’s annual meetings bring together more than 25,000 researchers, practitioners, students, and policymakers from around the world. The Global Environmental Change Early Career Award recognises... Read More
August 5, 2025 4:17 am
Published by Iain Strachan
The El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the strongest drivers of Australia’s seasonal rainfall. But even when a clear El Niño or La Niña is declared, there’s no guarantee that very dry or wet weather will follow. Australia’s rainfall is highly unpredictable. The chance of experiencing rain in any region depends on many connected environmental factors, from global ocean temperatures to small-scale weather systems affecting isolated areas. A major mode of climate variability, ENSO explains the changing patterns in... Read More
July 10, 2025 4:10 am
Published by Iain Strachan
New research published in Nature Geoscience shows that climate change and aerosols have led to lower precipitation in the Southwest United States, and made drought inevitable. The research, led by Yan-Ning Kuo, is the first to isolate the variables of human-caused climate change and air pollution to show how they directly affect the region’s precipitation. The study predicts that drought conditions will likely continue as the planet warms. “What we find is that precipitation is more directly influenced by climate... Read More
July 7, 2025 3:39 am
Published by Iain Strachan
Governments and businesses around the world are working toward net zero carbon emissions, where the amount of greenhouse gases we release into the atmosphere is balanced out by what we remove. It’s a vital step to stop further global warming, but new research warns that reaching net zero won’t mark a swift end to climate change. While global average temperatures may stop rising after net zero, other parts of the climate system will keep changing. Oceans will continue to warm,... Read More
June 18, 2025 11:54 pm
Published by Iain Strachan
Earth’s cloud cover is rapidly shrinking and contributing to record-breaking temperatures, according to new research involving the Monash-led Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather. The research, led by the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and published in Geophysical Research Letters, analysed satellite observations to find between 1.5 and 3 per cent of the world’s storm cloud zones have been contracting each decade in the past 24 years. The trend has been linked to changing wind... Read More
June 18, 2025 4:55 am
Published by Iain Strachan
A new experimental music work, Dark Oceanography, will premiere at the Monash University Performing Arts Centres on Sunday 27 July, immersing audiences in the swirling dynamics of ocean eddies and the future impacts of climate change beneath the surface of the sea. Created by The Sound Collectors Lab in partnership with the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Weather of the 21st Century, the work is a collaboration between leading percussionists, composers, music technologists and climate scientists. It uses ocean... Read More
June 13, 2025 6:34 am
Published by Iain Strachan
21st Century Weather is proud to share the news that Professor Nerilie Abram, our Deputy Director and Chief Investigator, has been appointed as the new Chief Scientist of the Australian Antarctic Division. The appointment marks a major milestone in Nerilie’s career as one of Australia’s most respected climate scientists. She will take up the post in August 2025, leading the scientific direction of the Australian Antarctic Program at a time of profound change for Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. A... Read More
