Climate change blamed as hotter Australia faces more intense rains, droughts

(Reuters) Australia faces a quickening pace of climate change, according to a snapshot of the nation’s weather. A new government report says rainfall trends are changing and temperatures warming across the country. The report, compiled by the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, comes after 18 months of record rains

Expect conditions mild to start, then cooler

Ithink the first thing I need to point out is that the usual temperature range for this time of the year is now getting warmer, which means we are past the middle of winter and heading toward spring! That is pretty much how this forecast looks. It doesn’t look like the overall pattern we’ve been


Record-breaking temperatures

Iknow some of you who faithfully follow my weather column are going to be upset, but I have to take a break from the explanation of what causes the North Atlantic Oscillation and focus this week instead on the monthly look back at the weather, then look ahead at what wonders the weather may hold

Will the wet years be followed by drought in 2012?

Producers can expect drier-than-normal conditions this spring, according to weather outlooks for the next couple of months. “Less-than-normal precipitation across the Canadian Prairies ahead of the winter freeze-up have already left soil conditions on the drier side,” said Drew Lerner, with World Weather Inc. of Kansas City. The absence of significant snowfall and above-average temperatures


Dryness could continue into the summer

The dry conditions that prevailed through the latter half of 2011 may continue on through 2012, says Manitoba Agriculture weather specialist Mike Wroblewski. Speaking at the 27th annual St. Jean Farm Days here last week, Wroblewski said the stage was set for 2011 in 2010, which showed higher-than-normal precipitation. “But once the fall came, wham.

No Big Cool-Downs… At Least, Not Yet

The main weather story for this forecast period will be the chance for our first real shot of snow this weekend. Weather for the middle part of this week looks to be rather quiet, as a large region of high pressure sits to our south and low pressure spins off the West Coast. Without any


Will The Warm, Dry Weather Continue?

October has come and gone and looking back, we could describe October s weather best by calling it the month of two tales, and fortunately for us, both of the tales were pretty good ones! We started off the month with record-breaking temperatures across pretty much all of agricultural Manitoba, with nearly every place breaking

All I Want For Christmas Is A… Weather Station!

CO-OPERATOR CONTRIBUTOR Over the last five or so years the interest in home-based weather observation has increased dramatically. At the same time, the availability and afford-ability of these systems has also increased (I m not sure which is driving which). When I first decided to start observing and recording the weather at home, about 15


Above-Average Weather To Continue

After last week s record-breaking warmth, the average temperatures expected during this forecast period are going to feel a little on the cold side, especially since we will not see much sunshine at least to start. The first part of this forecast period is going to be dominated by a large area of low pressure

Summer Is Officially Over, But It’s Not Done Yet

Idon t think there are many people out there complaining that the last part of last week s forecast was off the mark. The ridge of high pressure rebuilt itself last weekend and brought summer-like temperatures to pretty much all of southern and south-central Manitoba. The forecast then pointed toward a trough of low pressure