This summer, Victoria experienced the worst fire danger since Black Summer in 2019-2020, with record-breaking heat and flash droughts that fuelled more than 200 fires in the state. Within a week, residents of Wye River along the Great Ocean Road evacuated under catastrophic fire warnings only to have floods ravage the area a few days later. On this episode of Einstein A Go-Go, Dr Shane is joined by Dr Andrew Watkins to discuss this phenomenon described as ‘climate whiplash’, in his research paper Breakneck Speed: Summer Of Climate Whiplash.

Dr Andrew Watkins is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Earth, Atmosphere and Environment at Monash University and previous Head of Climate Prediction of The Bureau of Meteorology. For over 30 years he has worked on projects covering Global, Australian, Antarctic and South Pacific climate, meteorology and oceanography.

“The term climate whiplash refers to how many of our events are now tipping beyond what we have seen in the past, both in terms of heat and rainfall. This has been caused by the global warming due to fossil fuels.”

Read the Climate Council’s report Breakneck Speed: Summer Of Climate Whiplash here.