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A dust devil near Whim Creek in the Pilbara, Western Australia. Dust devils, or willy-willies, form when a localised pocket of hot air rises quickly through cooler air above it. They occur on hot, clear and calm days. In dry areas, dust is drawn into the rotating air column, giving dust devils their name and distinctive appearance.
Photograph: Coral Stanley-Joblin/Bureau of Meterology
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Lightning over Mt Coot-tha in Brisbane, Queensland. The high-voltage show is caused by negatively charged channels leaving the cloud, attracted to positively charged objects on the ground. The flash of light is the return stroke as the current heads back to the cloud.
Photograph: Chris Darbyshire/Bureau of Meterology
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Mammatus clouds at Daylesford in Victoria. Mammatus clouds appear as sagging pouches of sinking air which hang from the underside of a parent cloud. They indicate instability in the atmosphere. They’re distinctive in that they’re formed from downward motion, while most other clouds are formed from upward motion.
Photograph: Martina Nist/Bureau of Meterology
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A downburst seen on descent into Normanton, Queensland. Downbursts are localised areas where air, and sometimes rain, descend rapidly from thunderstorms or heavy showers. As the developing rain or thunderstorm cloud rises, strong updraft winds lift raindrops and hail high into the atmosphere. When the updraft can no longer support the weight of the rain core, it falls back down, gaining speed and strength as it falls then spreading out at the surface.
Photograph: Will Long/Bureau of Meterology
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A salt dust storm at Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, South Australia. Dust storms are common throughout arid central Australia and sometimes can make their way hundreds of kilometres to cities near the coast. Salt storms, like the one in this photo, are caused in a similar way to dust storms but are much less common. An expansive area of dry salt is needed, and there are relatively few such sources.
Photograph: Cathryn Vasseleu/Bureau of Meterology
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Rime ice on vegetation, Mount St Phillack, Victoria. Rime ice forms when supercooled liquid water droplets in the air freeze on contact with exposed surfaces. It occurs during periods of freezing fog, mainly during winter in alpine regions such as Baw Baw national park, where this photo was taken.
Photograph: Jason Freeman/Bureau of Meterology
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Large swell along the coast near Port Campbell, Victoria. Wind is the main cause of waves, and waves caused by local weather conditions are called sea waves. As they move away from the weather system that caused them, their appearance changes and they are called swell waves. Swell waves, like the ones in this photo, play a big part in shaping Australia’s constantly evolving and eroding southern coastline.
Photograph: Andrew Thomas/Bureau of Meterology
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A supercell thunderstorm, Gympie, Queensland. Thunderstorms can happen at any time of year but in Queensland, where this photo was taken, they’re most common from September to March. The frequency of storms during that period is primarily due to the increase in energy from the sun during the warmer months, and extra moisture coming in from the sea. Both are critical ingredients for huge storms like this supercell thunderstorm.
Photograph: Bet Wright/Bureau of Meterology
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Asperitas clouds in the Strathgordon area of Tasmania. This rare, lumpy-looking blanket of cloud is known as asperitas and is a relative newcomer to classification. It was added to the World Meteorological Organisation’s International Cloud Atlas in 2017. The cloud’s full name is altocumulus stratiformis opacus asperitas. Altocumulus refers to the height and cloud type – cumulus cloud in the middle level of the atmosphere. Stratiformis indicates it has formed in a layer. Opacus means it’s thick enough to mask the sun. And asperitas, from the Latin for roughness, refers to its wave-like appearance.
Photograph: Dotan Beck/Bureau of Meterology
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An afternoon thunderstorm, Gunn Point, Northern Territory. In the territory’s tropical Top End, where this photo was taken, the seasons are broadly categorised into the ‘dry’ and the ‘wet’. However, the Larrakia people in the Darwin region observe seven main seasons. These recognise changes in the weather and changes in the local plants and animals.
Photograph: Louise Denton/Bureau of Meterology
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A lightning strike near Forster, New South Wales. When photographing lightning, timing is everything. A sudden burst of light and sound, and in the blink of an eye it’s gone. This shot of cloud-to-ground lightning was taken in January 2021 during a summer storm outbreak that brought large hail and intense winds to the region.
Photograph: Cliff Gralton/Bureau of Meterology
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Aurora australis seen from Norring Lake in Wagin, Western Australia. The multicoloured light is the aurora australis or southern lights. It’s a common sight in Antarctica that’s sometimes also visible from Australia, as in this photo. Where you can see the aurora depends on the size of the space weather storm that causes it. The more intense the storm, the further away from the pole the aurora is visible. This aurora on 23 June 2015 was caused by one of the larger storms of the solar cycle.
Photograph: Grahame Kelaher/Bureau of Meterology
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