A climatology of Australian severe thunderstorm environments 1979-2011: Inter-annual variability and ENSO influence

Abstract

Severe thunderstorms present a significant threat to property and life in Australia during the warm season (September to April). However, these relatively infrequent events are poorly understood in terms of frequency and occurrence for much of the continent due to a lack of in-situ observations. With the spectre of a changing climate, there is an increasing need to understand thunderstorms and their impact on Australia, both in the past and for the future. To facilitate this, the relationship between severe thunderstorms and their associated environments is used as a probabilistic proxy for direct observations. To establish these conditions, a proximity climatology of environments was develo..