What does a “Triple La Niña” mean for Australia?

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The factors that drive our extreme weather events aren’t going away, and the likely outcome in future is even greater extremes, writes Caroline Zielinski at Cosmos Weekly.

After a tumultuous 18 months that saw much of Australia’s east-coast underwater and some communities experiencing multiple incidences of flooding, the announcement the weather is about to get even wetter is not exactly welcome news.

On 13 September the Australian Bureau of Meteorology confirmed that we’re up for a ‘triple dip’ La Niña.

With catchments already full, rivers high and dams at capacity from the last two years’ La Niñas, there’s nowhere for the new wave of rain to travel except over land, which itself is already saturated from two years of intense rainfall. Large parts of Australia’s east coast now face the risk, once again, of catastrophic flooding.

What causes a La Niña, and how are they different to the other climate pattern we hear about, El Niño? How worried should we be? And is the climate crisis making them worse?

“Water close to Australia is warmer than usual, and in Africa it’s cooler than usual, which, when working together with La Niña, tends to amplify the rainfall conditions in Australia.”

–Associate Professor Andrea Taschetto


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