Floods are part of Australia's natural ecology, although floods can cause significant damage to infrastructure and loss of life. Climate change may result in more severe flooding.
Parts of Australia experience several types of floods, including:
La Niña events are features of climate variability and reflect year-to-year variations in sea surface temperatures and weather patterns across the Pacific Ocean, commonly referred to as the El Niño – Southern Oscillation or ENSO. The flooding events of 1974 also occurred in a strong La Niña period.
For more information regarding La Niña events, see the Bureau of Meteorology's information on La Niña [external link].
Climate change involves long-term changes to the underlying ocean and atmosphere patterns that generate such events as part of year-to-year climate variability.
Warmer oceans and higher sea surface temperatures that result from climate change tend to increase the amount of moisture that gets transported from the ocean to the atmosphere. A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture and will most likely increase the intensity of extreme rainfall events.
CSIRO research shows that Australia is likely to become warmer over the coming decades, with a reduction in average annual rainfall in the south and east, and uncertain changes in average annual rainfall in the north.
Climate variability from year to year and within years will be superimposed on these trends in average conditions. For example, a warming trend will include some cool years and many hot years, and a drying trend will include some very wet years and many dry years. In this highly variable climate, future extreme rainfall events are likely to be more intense resulting in more severe flooding.
We seek research collaborators with complementary skills so we can work together for stronger results.