Dr. Pandora Hope
Abstract: A Land of Drought and Flooding rains: Forecasts, Impacts and Causes of Recent Extremes Across Australia
Australia's climate is influenced by key large-scale modes of variability, which serve as a source of multi-month predictability and can provide warning of climate extremes. This variability occurs on the background of a changing climate, and together these can change the risk of extremes occurring or their severity. Most of the extremes (flood, heat and fire) link to changes in the antecedent rainfall on a range of timescales, from hours through months to years. This presentation will describe some details around the forecasts, impacts and causes of extreme fires and floods in Australia and highlight further work that could be done.
Biography
Dr Pandora Hope is a Principal Research Scientist at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Her research focus is on understanding and quantifying the influence from a range of drivers on weather and climate extremes, climate variability and change. Dr Hope is a lead author on the recently released 6th assessment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Dr Hope works hard to ensure that the latest climate science is presented in approachable and useful ways to help communities manage the impacts of climate change.