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The John Batchelor Show

PREVIEW: AUSTRALIA WEATHER: Meteorologist Jeremy Zakis reports from NSW on Spring's dual nature - current positive Southern Annular Mode bringing storms and rain, with bushfire risks looming ahead. More next week.

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

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4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2024

⏱️ 6 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

 AUSTRALIA WEATHER: Climate Watcher Jeremy Zakis reports from NSW on Spring's dual nature - current positive Southern Annular Mode bringing storms and rain, with bushfire risks looming ahead. More next week.

1950 Perth

Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchel to New South Wales.

0:04.8

Jeremy Zackis reporting on positive southern annular mode. Sounds good. This is springtime in Australia.

0:14.8

It is a continent. I'm always reminded as the weather has different faces across this vastness, just as it does in the continent of

0:24.0

North America. However, I'm learning. Jeremy, a good day to you. What is a positive

0:29.9

southern annular mode? Is that a good thing? Good day. Good day. Gide, John. Yes, in short,

0:36.3

the southern annular mode, a positive one of that, is a very good thing in summer.

0:40.8

And I'll tell you why, because the southern annular mode in summer actually creates wet weather systems that push moisture onto the Australian continent and cause a decent amount of rain just before our summer period hits.

0:54.0

And by causing that decent amount of rain, before our summer period hits. And by causing that decent

0:55.4

amount of rain, it actually slows the start of summer. It cools down the temperatures. It actually

1:00.4

means that the really hot dry winds that we get from the north aren't quite here yet. And it gives us

1:06.0

a little bit of reprieve before we start the hot, hot summer. And what the actual mechanism is, John,

1:11.7

which is the most interesting part is, is that the southern annular mode, when it's in the positive

1:16.4

sense in summer, is actually a series of low pressure systems to the south of Australia,

1:21.6

so between Australia and Antarctica, that actually causes the very cool, dry air from from Antarctica to stay south. But what it also

1:30.7

does is it naturally cools the air and temperature just in the southern part of Australia,

1:35.6

allowing the moisture to come in from the tropics, basically mix in with the air and create these

1:40.3

really wet weather systems. So it kind of gives a balancing act to a really, really dry and hot

1:44.8

continent and a really, really cold Antarctica, just enough to give us that little bit of water that we

1:50.1

need. So, John, this is a good thing for now, but of course, as with everything in Australia,

1:55.1

good things can turn bad because while we've had a lot of rain right now, we're about to get a lot

1:59.3

of growth. So a lot of bushlands about to be growing and a lot of grasslands about to be growing just before we probably get a very hot catastrophic summer that's probably going to have a lot of, lot of bushfires right now.

2:11.0

So, John, I'm taking the rain while we can, but honestly, the southern annielloid, a double-edged sword.

...

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