• Record widespread rainfall threatens massive floodings in Australia

    Wide tracts of open desert as well as key agricultural lands and some urban areas will be at risk of inundation and severe floodings due torrential rains at middle and southeastern Australia. Widespread rainfall through Sunday reached 150 to 250 mm (6 to 10 inches).

  • New floodings in Australia

    New Australia floods are starting again. Flooding isolated communities in northern New South Wales in late November 2011 battled with rising waters which cut off roughly 1,800 residents of Wee Waa, and about 200 rural properties in the vicinity of Moree, according to

  • Brisbane flood fears, autorities to release water from dam

    A massive dam in northern Australia was to begin draining this week following predictions that Brisbane, the nation’s third-largest city, could be flooded again if heavy rains return. Queensland state goverment officials said the Wivenhoe Dam, near Brisbane, would

  • Fires in north central Australia

    Each year, the cool dry season of northern Australia brings a strong threat of bushfire to the tropical savannas as the grasses and brush, made lush by summer rains, become bone-dry fuel. ABC Rural, of Australia, reported that after a summer of flooding, less rain has

  • The Chilean caldera still emits a steady stream of ash

    The Puyehue volcano in Chile continues to spew ash that is still disrupting air travel as far as Australia and New Zealand this week. A new animation of satellite imagery just released from the NASA/NOAA GOES Project shows the ash spewing from the