'Hydroclimate whiplash': The new phenomenon unleashing deadly fires on our cities [View all]
Californian climate scientists have published one of the timeliest findings in history. Hydroclimate whiplash a term for the phenomenon of savage seasonal swings between catastrophic rain and sapping drought is increasing, fast.
Driven by an atmosphere stoked hotter by the burning of fossil fuels, the whiplash is amplifying flash-floods, wildfires, landslides and disease outbreaks, the paper released overnight on Friday found.
To illustrate this volatility, the authors zeroed in on California, where nine atmospheric river storms dumped record-breaking rain over a three-week period last (northern hemisphere) winter. Nearly 30 centimetres of rain hit the University of California, Los Angeles, which led the research, in two days last February. But this winter, barely a drop.
Weather whiplash has proliferated across the globe, including in Australia, which lurched from the state-spanning blazes of Black Summer to a three-year bout of rain-making La Nina weather systems.
https://www.theage.com.au/national/hydroclimate-whiplash-the-new-phenomenon-unleashing-deadly-fires-on-our-cities-20250109-p5l34v.html
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