Weatherzone, By: Ben McBurney, 12/02/2013

Sydney has recorded its warmest spring on record, largely due to a fiery September and October. The combined minimum and maximum for the New South Wales capital of 19.9 degrees for spring comfortably broke the previous record of 19.5 degrees set in 1988. The average maximum of 24.7 degrees smashed the previous record set in 2002 of 24.2 degrees.

Despite November coming in close to average, October and particularly September were largely responsible for the record. The average maximum of 24.4 degrees in September was more than four degrees above the long term average, and more than one degree above the previous record of 23.3 degrees set in 1980.

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ABC, By: Catherine Clifford, 11/26/2013

The Rural Fire Service says three fires broke out near Narrabri on Monday despite some good recent rain. RFS Deputy Incident Controller, Brett Loughlin, says the blazes started within a 30km radius of Narrabri. He says one was in the Bobbiwa National Park, another on Pikes Lane and the third was on a private property.

Brett Loughlin says lightning was a factor in all three and significant resources were deployed. "Some 12 fire trucks, two helicopters and a fixed-wing water-bomber were responded to one fire and thanks to co-ordinated efforts crews were able to bring that fire under control without it posing any threat to property," he said. "However, an area of about 25 hectares was burned out."

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ABC, By: Catherine Clifford, 11/24/2013

A woman in her 70s was lucky to escape with her life as a mini-tornado ripped her house to shreds at Tenterden on Saturday. The SES says the elderly woman put a pillow over her head and sheltered in her lounge room as the roof lifted off and her home disintegrated around her. The tornado touched down around 4:00pm at Tenterden, Ben Lomond and Guyra. Elsewhere, strong winds and heavy storms battered parts of the region, with falls of up to 60mm recorded in half an hour at Barraba township.

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ABC By: Charlotte Hamlyn, 11/21/2013

A team of water experts has identified a direct link between widespread land clearing and a decline in rainfall in Western Australia's South West region. Researchers from the Centre for Water Research at the University of Western Australia say there is conclusive evidence that extensive logging, which saw 50 per cent of the South West's native forests cleared in the 1960s to 1980s, caused a 16 per cent reduction in rainfall. Honorary Research Fellow Mark Andrich says the findings have prompted calls for urgent reforestation. "Around half of the rainfall decline, at least up until the year 2000, is a result of land clearing," he said.  "By implication it means that if we plant more trees or have more reforestations then there's a likelihood that rainfall could return." He says re-planting native trees would mitigate climate change but it will take some time before it has any impact on rainfall.

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ABC, By: Sharnie Kim and Kier Shorey, 11/19/2013

Severe weather overnight has damaged buildings at Mount Garnet in far north Queensland. Daryl Camp from Emergency Management Queensland says a service station and at least three houses have lost part of their roofs. The storm also brought down trees and powerlines. Mr Camp says locals were taken by surprise. "The SES [State Emergency Service] guys could see the storm coming so they went in and started preparing, making sure they were ready," he said. "When the hail started coming down they all moved inside and closed the roller doors and what they had to do was park the cars against the doors because the winds were that strong they almost blew the roller doors in. A large tree fell down and blocked their building, the roller doors, so they cleaned that up and then they went straight out and they went around the town. They certainly weren't expecting it to be quite that severe and there was no severe thunderstorm warning for that area." Michael Chong from the Mount Garnet roadhouse says the storm was reminiscent of a cyclone.

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