#Extreme events

Why don’t our cities cope with heavy rain?

As our climate changes, we'll experience more extreme weather. We're researching how we can create better cities that can withstand heavy rains and floods.

Bushfires and climate change Q&A with Dr Michael Grose

Australia is in the midst of an unfolding extreme bushfire season, with far-reaching impacts for many communities across the nation, particularly in the southern and eastern areas. We wanted to check in with one of CSIRO’s senior climate researchers, Dr Michael Grose, to understand how extreme events like bushfires are linked to climate change, and where science leads to certainty in our understanding and where there are more research questions to be explored.

A dry landscape and a dire season: we explain the current bushfire environment

Sydney and New South Wales (NSW) north coast residents continue to battle poor air quality as a result of fires burning through the state. Our bushfire expert Andrew Sullivan delves beyond the smoke haze to explain the current crisis and the tough conditions ahead.

Climate change and extreme events – quantifying the changing odds

The field of climate change event attribution research has emerged recently and can provide new insights into Australian climate extremes.

When disasters collide: helping Australia adapt to new risks under climate change

A collision of severe weather events can destroy lives and infrastructure, destabilising economies and ecosystems. In a rapidly warming world the frequency and magnitude of these compound events will only increase, according to the latest report from the IPCC.

Island nation leads the way in climate resilience

Salamo Fulivai reads the nightly news in Tonga but when Tropical Cylcone Gita arrived it was more than a story. Fortunately, forewarned is forearmed. Just months earlier Salamo had been part of climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction training.

Scientists warm up for next climate change report

As work gathers pace for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s next climate predictions, scientists sense a groundswell of change to try and meet the Paris Agreement.

Raising hope out of ashes of the Tathra bushfire

Out of the ashes of the Tathra bushfire, and stories of heartbreaking loss and survival, a picture is emerging of how research is helping to save properties and improve bushfire outcomes.

Building a one-stop-shop for all our energy data needs

Australians go through more than 6,000 petajoules of energy every year to keep everything from their phones to their factories running. It’s a nice number for pub trivia, but if you’re a policy maker, researcher, or investor in our nation’s future energy demands, you’ll need something better than a back-of-the-envelope calculation. CSIRO’s Energy Use Data Model could soon come in handy.