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Troughs around a low over eastern WA bring showers and the storms over WA, the southern NT and western SA. A front brushing southwest WA brings a few showers. Onshore winds brings showers to coastal NSW and western Tas.
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Today, 4:55AM UTC
"There's a storm coming [Australia], and we all best be ready when she does"
Southern Australia is expecting another bought of rain, winds and lightning across the country these next three days. Image: Two-hour satellite loop from 12:20pm AEST to 2:20pm AEST on Sunday 23rd. Source: Weatherzone A low pressure system over southeastern Western Australia is spiralling east, crossing the entire bottom half of the country and moving off the east coast early Wednesday. Two cloud arms, with troughs extending from the low, are bringing storms to south and eastern WA and are expected to continue to do so as the system travels east. The first cloud arm brought thunderstorms and lightning over WA's interior since late morning Saturday 22nd. The trough causing this arm is drawing moisture from the tropical waters to WA's northwest. Warm and humid, this airstream has ample fuel for storms to continue. And with clear skies ahead of it, the desert sands baked by the hot afternoon sun should maintain the energy source for this arm to keep popping storms over the next few days. Image: Forecast atmospheric moisture at 11:00am AEST Sunday 23rd, 2026. Source: Weatherzone The second arm is driven by cold air being injected in by a cold front. But as a high pressure ridge builds from the west, the pressure gradient will increase, squeezing the winds moving into this arm and making it windier than the first arm. Gusty winds are expected tomorrow morning for South Australia's Peninsulas, with gusts reaching 80km/h. Image: Forecast wind strength and direction at 4:00am AEST Monday 24th, 2026. Source: Weatherzone The two arms will combine on Monday, with heavy showers and rain moving into eastern Australia on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th. Rainfall totals of 50-100mm are expected over the southeast of the country between now and Wednesday, heaviest over the Australian Alps. Image: 3-day accumulated precipitation ending 4:00am AEST Wednesday 26th, 2026. Source: Weatherzone This current system is unlikely to be extreme, but with the last few systems that have pasted, it's a reminder to all of us that storm season is right around the corner. So, it's time to make our final checks; clean those gutters, fix those loose shingles and be prepared to tie our outdoor furniture as the Spring Storm Fiesta draws nearer.
22 Aug 2026, 5:06AM UTC
Watch this 7000km cloudband splits Australia into two
The huge northwest cloudband that was the topic of interest in Thursday's story, could be seen splitting the country in satellite imagery on Friday 21st. Image: Thirty-minute satellite loop from 10:50am AEST on Wednesday 19th to 10:20am AEST on Saturday 22nd. The northwest cloudband spanned 7000km yesterday, stretching from Western Australia's Gascoyne to NSW's northeast. Not only did it visually split the country, the cloudband marked the boundary between hot air and cold air quite distinctly as we can see with 4:15pm temperatures being overlayed on top of the satellite image. Image: Satellite image with recorded temperatures, winds and rain radar at 4:15pm AEST on Friday 21st August As mentioned in "What is a northwest cloudband", the cloudband draws tropical moisture from the Indian Ocean across the country, pushed by a passing system like a cold front from the south. We can also distinctly see the moisture in the cloud band compared to the other parts of the country. Image: Satellite image with recorded dewpoint temperatures (measure of moisture; the higher the more moisture there is), winds and rain radar at 4:15pm AEST on Friday 21st August The cloudband is dissipating over the weekend as the trough and front system that provided its moisture and motion have moved over the Tasman Sea. The system is looking to bring substantial winds to our neighbours across the pond, with forecast winds up to 120km/h forecast for the New Zealand Alps and areas about the Cook Strait. Other than winds, MetService has issued weather warnings for heavy rainfall of 140-160mm, 1-5cm of snow above 500m and swell up to 4 to 4.5m over the weekend.
21 Aug 2026, 7:41AM UTC
El Niño affecting Pacific Ocean marine life
Satellites have captured changes in marine life directly associated with a rapidly strengthening El Niño in the tropical Pacific Ocean. The typical weather impacts of El Niño are widely known across the world – they include reduced rainfall in Australia, suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic, a weaker monsoon in India and heavier rain in some western areas of South America. In addition to these atmospheric anomalies, El Niño events also cause large-scale changes to ocean currents and water temperatures across the Pacific Ocean, and these changes can have massive impacts on marine life. Very strong El Niño getting stronger El Niño developed in the middle of 2026 and has been strengthening rapidly in the last couple of months. By the middle of August, sea surface temperatures in the central tropical Pacific Ocean – a key monitoring region for El Niño – were more than 2.7°C above the 1991-2020 average. These are some of the highest anomalies on record for the central Pacific. Image: Sea surface temperature in the Niño3.4 region (central equatorial Pacific Ocean) from 1981 to 2026. The dark red line is 2026, showing current temperatures are the highest on record for this dataset. Source: ClimateReanalyzer.org. Computer models predict that this El Niño will continue to strengthen in the coming months and is likely to peak at record-breaking strength towards the end of 2026. Based on its forecast strength, El Niño will likely persist through the first few months of 2027. The Bureau of Meteorology’s ACCESS-S model anticipates that the monthly relative temperature anomaly – which accounts for climate change – in the central tropical Pacific Ocean will reach around +3.6°C in November 2026. This would easily beat the previous record of +2.65 from November 1902, according to Bureau data dating back to 1900. This very strong El Niño event will have far-reaching impacts on marine life across the Pacific, and some of these impacts are already starting to occur. Marine food web responding to El Niño NASA’s PACE satellite has detected suppressed phytoplankton abundance in the central Pacific Ocean in response to this year’s El Niño. The satellite detected a relative drop in chlorophyll-a concentrations – the pigment present in most phytoplankton – during June this year compared to June last year. Phytoplankton abundance is directly linked to nutrient availability. When El Niño is underway, equatorial trade winds weaken or reverse over the tropical Pacific. This causes warm water to build near the surface of the central and eastern tropical Pacific, suppressing the upwelling of cooler, nutrient-rich water. Image: Concentrations of chlorophyll-a in the equatorial Pacific Ocean in June 2025 (left) and June 2026 (right). The presence of El Niño in 2026 has caused a reduction in chlorophyll-a concentrations in parts of the Pacific Ocean. Source: NASA Earth Observatory / Michala Garrison. Phytoplankton are important because they produce oxygen and feed other organisms. While microscopic, these tiny plant-like organisms play a critical at the foundation of marine food webs. For example, phytoplankton feed small marine animals called zooplankton, which feed larger fish, whales and other marine life. Peru’s anchovy fishing operations – which produce around 20% of the world’s fishmeal and fish oil production – are also sensitive to El Niño. Past El Niño events have caused significant declines in fish numbers near Peru because of warm surface water and suppressed upwelling in the eastern tropical Pacific. Fishing operations in Peru have been suspended in recent months due to this year’s developing El Niño. Earlier this month, the Peruvian Ministry of Production (PRODUCE) carried out operations to obtain information about the state of anchovy and other open-water resources near Peru. According to reports, this assessment found that anchovy shows relatively good growth and reproductive activity in Peruvian waters, despite the developing El Niño. This information offers some hope that operations can resume sustainably, even as El Niño continues to strengthen. Sea birds can also be impacted by disruptions to marine food webs driven by El Niño. Last month, there were reports of pelicans flocking to Peruvian ports to find food as fish stocks declined offshore. Coral bleaching also has close links with El Niño’s ocean warmth. According to forecasts from NOAA’s National Weather Service, there is a 90% likelihood of coral bleaching across a broad area of the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean in the next 4 months. This region closely matches the warm water footprint of El Niño. Image: Probability of coral bleaching in the next four months. Source: NOAA. This El Niño event will continue to have far-reaching impacts across the world during the rest of 2026 and early in 2027.