AMOS conference update 2015

With a conference theme of ‘Research to Community: Communicating our science’, the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS) held their National Conference in Brisbane on July 15-17 2015. As Chair of Brisbane Regional Centre of AMOS and chief organiser it was my responsibility to make sure the event went smoothly.

The conference spanned three days and covered the latest research and applications of Weather Forecasting, Regional Climate Projections, Synoptic Meteorology, Tropical Cyclones, East Coast Lows and the influence of the Southern and Pacific Oceans on the global climate. The conference was well attended by the researchers and students from universities across Australia, CSIRO, Bureau of Meteorology and other practitioners in the meteorological and oceanographic sciences.

Highlights of the conference were a media panel, where editors from Nature, the Brisbane Times and The Conversation discussed science in the media and how science stories are perceived and received by the public. There was also an education outreach day where local elementary and high school science teachers were invited to spend some time with the leading researchers and educators in the meteorological and oceanographic fields.

So what’s new in the fields of Meteorology and Oceanography?

One issue that caught my eye was humidity and heat related illness.  It looks like night-time humidity could be the main driver of heat related illness in the tropics, not maximum daily temperature!

Also, there is now evidence of links between ENSO and the location of East Coast Lows – a cause of intense rainfall and gale force winds in eastern Australia. The research raises the prospect of seasonal predictions of East Coast Lows. Other research shows that the location a Rossby wave breaks can influence fire weather conditions in southern Australia and water isotopes from cave stalactites can help us understand what the climate was like more than 100,000 years ago and how it has changed between then and now.

If you want to find out more about the weather and climate and how it affects you or your business please give me a call, 07 3369 3699.

Andrew Wiebe
Principal Consultant
Meteorology and Forecasting