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Natural hazards in Australia: storms, wind and hail

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Abstract

Current and potential future storm-related wind and hail hazard in Australia is reviewed. Confidence in the current incidence of wind hazard depends upon the type of storm producing the hazard. Current hail hazard is poorly quantified in most regions of Australia. Future projections of wind hazard indicate decreases in wind hazard in northern Australia, increases along the east coast and decreases in the south, although such projections are considerably uncertain and are more uncertain for small-scale storms than for larger storms. A number of research gaps are identified and recommendations made.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank their respective institutions for supporting this work. J.P. Evans is supported by funding from the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage funded NSW/ACT Regional Climate Modelling (NARCliM) Project and the Australian Research Council as part of the Future Fellowship FT110100576.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia

    Kevin Walsh

  2. School of Engineering and ICT, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

    Christopher J. White

  3. Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia

    Christopher J. White

  4. CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Australia

    Kathleen McInnes

  5. JDH Consulting, Mentone, Kingston, Australia

    John Holmes

  6. Independent consultant, Sydney, Australia

    Sandra Schuster

  7. Independent consultant, Ulm, Germany

    Sandra Schuster

  8. Australian Bureau of Meteorology, Melbourne, Australia

    Harald Richter

  9. Climate Change Research Centre & ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, UNSW, Sydney, Australia

    Jason P. Evans & Alejandro Di Luca

  10. Monash University, Clayton, Australia

    Robert A. Warren

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  1. Kevin Walsh
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  2. Christopher J. White
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  3. Kathleen McInnes
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  4. John Holmes
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Correspondence to Kevin Walsh.

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This article is part of a Special Issue on “The effect of historical and future climate changes on natural hazards in Australia” edited by Seth Westra, Chris White and Anthony Kiem.

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Walsh, K., White, C.J., McInnes, K. et al. Natural hazards in Australia: storms, wind and hail. Climatic Change 139, 55–67 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-016-1737-7

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