S8 Ep766: Jeremy Zakis reports on the early onset of a dry El Niño cycle in Australia, causing unusually cold temperatures and preventing typical fall storms. This dry air dissipated a potential cyclone but raised concerns about a catastrophic summer and early bush

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🗓️ 19 April 2026

⏱️ 15 minutes

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Summary

Jeremy Zakis reports on the early onset of a dry El Niño cycle in Australia, causing unusually cold temperatures and preventing typical fall storms. This dry air dissipated a potential cyclone but raised concerns about a catastrophic summer and early bushfire risks, prompting preemptive back-burning. Meanwhile, the Middle East crisis has spiked petrol prices to record highs, with Australian costs reaching $8–$9 per gallon, as the government advises fuel-saving measures such as using public transit and maintaining tire pressure to avoid formal rationing. (1)
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Transcript

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0:00.0	This is the Friends of History Debating Society. I'm John Batchel to New South Wales. My good colleague,
0:05.6	Jeremy Zakis, he's outside of Sydney. We're reporting on the continental weather, and we'll mention
0:11.7	the price of petrol as well. That is now part of our weather report, how much petrol costs,
0:18.2	how much you have to fill up, given the continuing medieval,
0:22.4	the continuing Middle East crises.
0:26.3	Excuse me for the medieval remark.
0:28.1	We're modern men, Jeremy.
0:29.4	Okay, the modern men know the weather changes this time of year.
0:33.6	You're into your fall season as I'm into my spring season, Southern Hemisphere, Northern
0:38.3	Hemisphere. The prediction was El Nino, El Nino for Australia, El Nino for North America.
0:46.1	So your weather this week, it's early fall. What have you experienced? Good day to, Jeremy.
0:52.4	You know, John. Well, guess what we've experienced?
0:54.6	We have experienced exactly what the prediction said about El Nino.
0:58.2	Last time we spoke, we were talking about heavy rains and the cyclone forming off the Queensland coast,
1:03.4	and it was very damp, and it just storms all up and down the eastern seaboard.
1:07.8	But we did mention the prediction was El Ninoa was coming and we could
1:11.4	expect some drier weather. Well, the drier weather is already here. And not only is it here in
1:17.6	New South Wales and Sydney, it is all the way from Queensland right down to Victoria and even
1:22.7	Tasmania. So El Nino, the beginning of it, is certainly here right now. Normally about this time of year, we're actually in fall right now. We'd have that rain. We'd have the storm still coming through and start to get into that cold or weather cycle. But no, we are definitely in a very dry weather cycle. There's going to be no rain, no storms for the next 10 days, at least on the eastern seaboard, and at the same time,
1:44.7	too, we're in very, very cold temperatures. So as I speak to you now, we're only 6 degrees
1:49.7	Celsius, which is around about, you know, say about 8 degrees Fahrenheit above freezing. So it is
1:57.1	truly cold for this time of the morning, even though it's beautiful blue sunshine
	...

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