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
May 20, 2025 12:54 am
Published by Iain Strachan
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 more frequent and intense heatwaves this century. The team used advanced computer models to study how well things like street-level trees, cool roofs, green roofs,... Read More
April 10, 2025 3:22 am
Published by Iain Strachan
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 will address the lack of evidence on how heat affects First Nations people living in remote Australia. Hot weather-related health impacts remain largely unknown for... Read More
March 27, 2025 11:53 pm
Published by Iain Strachan
Imagine predicting the wind flow around you with precision – perhaps to find a refreshing breeze on a hot day or a sheltered spot when it’s chilly. Until now, such predictions would require solving complex physical models on supercomputers – far too demanding for personal devices like phones, ipads and laptops to handle. Researchers at UNSW in Australia have changed that. The team, based at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and the ARC Centre of Excellence for... Read More
March 26, 2025 3:37 am
Published by Iain Strachan
In recent years, the world has been grappling with the growing impacts of climate change, from devastating heatwaves to floods and droughts. Behind the scenes, work has been continuing to determine how we can fairly and accurately support affected communities and countries via the mechanisms of Loss & Damage and impact attribution. A significant outcome of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s Conference of Parties (COP) meetings has been the creation of a new fund to support... Read More
February 26, 2025 10:29 pm
Published by Iain Strachan
In this special blog post, read about 21st Century Weather Chief Investigator Negin Nazarian’s inspiring voyage to Antarctica as part the Homeward Bound program. Why was I there? I promised Antarctica reflections and penguin photos, so here we go! First and foremost: why was I there? The answer is to take part in the most unique leadership program there is – one designed by women, for women, with sustainability and the health of our planet at its very core. This... Read More
December 19, 2024 4:59 am
Published by Iain Strachan
Critical physiological limits to human heat tolerance are drawing ever closer, highlighting the urgent need to limit further climate warming and emphasising the adaptation challenge ahead. Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change, 21st Century Weather researchers and their collaborators at institutions around the world offered a stark reminder that the hottest boreal summer on record has driven widespread humid heat mortality across every continent of the Northern Hemisphere in 2024. Sufficiently high combinations of air temperature and humidity (levels... Read More
November 26, 2024 10:20 pm
Published by Iain Strachan
21st Century Weather supports the recommendations made in A Decadal Plan for Australian Earth System Science 2024–2033. The Decadal Plan has been developed by the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Earth System Science (NCESS). Members of the NCESS include 21st Century Weather Chief Investigators Julie Arblaster, Claire Vincent and Negin Nazarian. The plan calls for the urgent establishment of a national institute responsible for coordinating the science required to transform Australia’s response to climate change. According to the researchers involved,... Read More
