Australian Weather

20 Aug 2023, 2:12AM UTC

Whilst the Matilda's dream of winning the World Cup has come to an end, it lives on for Spain and England as they clash in the World Cup Final in Sydney on Sunday night. Let's take a look at what the weather has in store for those heading to the match.  The final is being held at Stadium Australia, in the Sydney Olympic Park Precinct in Homebush. Over 70,000 people are expected to attend the event, with gates opening at 5:30pm, ahead of an 8pm kick off.  Sunday morning brought brilliant blue skies to Sydney. That will be the case for much of the afternoon and for those heading in early to enjoy the atmosphere. There will be a bit of an increase in cloud cover closer to kick off, though skies will remain mostly clear. The good news is that despite some extra clouds about, it will remain dry throughout the match.  Image: Cloud cover and temperatures on Sunday evening according to the ECMWF model. Temperatures when gates open are expected to be around 17°C, cooling to close to 13°C by kick off and around 11°C when the final whistle blows at about 10pm (unless of course the match goes into extra time). Thankfully, winds will be light throughout the evening and will not add much in the way of wind chill.  All in all, it's close to ideal conditions for those lucky enough to be heading out to watch the match. 

19 Aug 2023, 8:10AM UTC

As Weatherzone meteorologist Maryam Al-Ansari wrote earlier today, we've been seeing a lot of hurricane activity in the East Pacific Ocean lately, thanks to warmer-than-normal ocean temperatures and higher-than-average atmospheric moisture. The one of biggest concern right now is Hurricane Hilary, currently a Category 4 system, which looks to begin impacting the Baja California peninsula of Mexico on Saturday night Pacific Daylight Time (PDT). It is then forecast to make landfall as a hurricane over the western Baja California coast before weakening to a Tropical Storm and making landfall again somewhere around the Mexico/California border on Sunday, triggering California’s first-ever Tropical Storm Warning (see image below).     ‘It’s been 84 years’  While the movie buffs among us may recognise those words as the memeable quote from the fictional character Rose DeWitt Bukater in James Cameron’s blockbuster film Titanic, in this case they are directly relevant to California’s sparse history of tropical storm activity. If Hurricane Hilary makes landfall over the southern California coast as a tropical storm, it will be the first time in almost 84 years this has happened. In September 1939, Tropical Storm El Cordonazo made landfall near Long Beach, California, bringing record-breaking rainfall and, tragically, fatal flash-flooding. However, no tropical storm warning was ever issued for this system because prior to 1956, there was no U.S. National Hurricane Center to issue one.   At the time of writing, it looks like the centre of Tropical Storm Hilary should make landfall just south of the Mexico-California border. But just like Tropical Storm El Cordonazo, torrential rainfall and flash-flooding are the most significant risks associated with this system. Why? Because southern California and the Baja California peninsula are marked by mountain ranges. When a major storm system comes into contact with a mountain range, a process called “orographic lifting” can take place, causing the storm’s moist air to lift up over the mountains. As it does so, it cools and becomes more humid, leading to more intense condensation and rainfall than might otherwise be expected. The resulting rainfall then runs downhill, triggering intense flash-flooding and even landslides. The orographic lifting process is well-illustrated in this schematic from the University of Hawai’i:  After impacting southern California, the system is expected to weaken to a tropical depression as it moves north into Nevada. At this stage, NOAA’s National Hurricane Center is forecasting that “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding is likely over Baja California and the Southwestern U.S. through early next week.” It also warns that large swells generated by Hilary could cause life-threatening surf and rip conditions from southern California down to southwestern Mexico. This is definitely a storm system to take seriously.