BAMOS
Dec 2018
News
Meeting with Emergency Services
Partners—AFAC18
Monica Long
Bureau of Meteorology
Around a dozen Bureau staff attended the 2018 Australasian
Fire and Emergency Services Authorities Council (AFAC)
Conference in Perth during 5–7 September 2018. This is
Australasia’s premier conference for emergency management
and public safety, attracting over 2800 scientists, practitioners,
policy makers, and technology and equipment providers,
including a record 1,433 delegates.
A range of recent Bureau work was presented including
modelling hazard impacts, coupled fire-atmosphere
interactions, soil moisture, and smoke; predicting
pyrocumulonimbus; climate monitoring and prediction,
including seasonal risk of fire and flood, extremes and climate
change; progress in predicting heatwaves; and warning
improvements.
The Bureau’s important contributions to the new National
Fire Danger Rating System (NFDRS) were well recognised in a
standing room only session on NFDRS. Related to this point,
Dr Simon Heemstra from NSW Rural Fire Service received
an AFAC excellence award for his leadership of NFDRS
development.
Several people were interviewed for “AFAC TV”, which
promoted interesting work done by various AFAC
participants.
The AFAC Conference was a good opportunity to network
with key stakeholders in the fire and emergency management
space, meet with end users of research and learn about what
is happening with leadership, mental health and diversity
initiatives in the sector.
IPCC Special Report events
Events were held in both Melbourne and Perth to mark the
launch of the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5 °C
which was released in October. A summary of the WA event
provided by Jatin Kala, Centre Chair is presented below.
WA
A University of Western Australia (UWA) and AMOS co-
sponsored public lecture and panel discussion on: “An evening
with WA authors of the IPCC Special Report 1.5 °C” was held
at UWA, on Thursday 1 November 2018, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm.
The event was sold out within a few days with a 339 person
capacity lecture theatre packed. Three public lectures followed
by a panel discussion were delivered by five Western Australian
scientists who contributed to this historic report:
Dr. Neville Ellis (Chapter Scientist for Ch5, UWA) and Ms
Karen Paiva Henrique (Contributing Author for Ch5, UWA):
Background to the IPCC Special Report 1.5 °C
Dr. Jatin Kala (Lead Author for Ch1, Murdoch University):
What is 1.5 °C and why do we care?
Prof. Peter Newman (Lead Author for Ch4, Curtin University):
1.5 °C: what is the world doing and what more can it do?
Prof. Petra Tschakert (Coordinating Lead Author, Ch5, The
University of Western Australia): What does 1.5 °C mean for
people, sustainable development and poverty eradication?
Distinguished guests to the event included:
Hon. Dave Kelly, Minister for Water, Fisheries, Innovation
and ICT, Science and Patricia Pedelty, Policy Advisor to the
Minister
Tim Clifford, MLC East Metro
Prof. Peter Klinken, WA Chief Scientist
Prof. Carmen Lawrence, Former WA Premier
Dale Park, Former Head of WA Farmers
Conference proceedings, including videos, presentations,
posters and short papers can be accessed at https://www.
afac.com.au/events/proceedings. The event was very well received with a lot of positive feedback
from the public.
Next year’s conference, AFAC19, will be held in Melbourne
from 27–30 August 2019. In case you missed it
BAMS launches their annual report: Explaining Extreme Events
of 2017 from a Climate Perspective
UK Met Office releases statement: 2018 UK summer heatwave
made thirty times more likely due to climate change
Climate Council releases report: ’Deluge & Drought: Water
Security in a Changing Climate’
Bureau releases two special climate statements:
An extreme heatwave on the tropical Queensland coast
An abnormally dry period in eastern Australia
Award winner Dr Simon Heemstra (NSW Rural Fire
Service), Monica Long and Lynette Bettio (Bureau of
Meteorology) at the AFAC18 gala dinner.
Image: Monica Long
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