BAMOS
Mar 2020
Contents
4 President’s report
6 News
7 Conference report—American
Meteorological Society Annual
Meeting
8 Conference highlights—AMOS2020
12 Zillman Medal—acceptance speech
14
Workshop report—Climate Across
the Curriculum
16 Precipitation, Politics and Prayers—
Fisher’s Little Drought
20 The Power of One Line Poetry to
Communicate Climate Change
22 Blue haze
23 Charts of the Past with Blair Trewin
24 Seasonal Snaps
26 Calendar and JSHESS contents
ISSN 1035‑6576
Editor: Belinda Campbell
Editors‑in‑Chief: Damien Irving, Linden Ashcroft
Assistant Editors: Diana Greenslade, Melissa Lyne and Blair Trewin
Design: Jeanette Dargaville
Publisher: AMOS, GPO Box 1289, Melbourne VIC 3001, Australia
Submission deadline for next issue: 21 May 2020
Contact and submit pieces: [email protected]. Submission
guidelines are available online and at the end of this issue.
Image: Stunning summer sunset. Source: Belinda Campbell
Cover image: The Canberra fires at sunset from Flynn. Source: Al
Hawksford
Other images in this publication: Photographs without a specified
source are obtained via the ‘pexels’ website and hyperlinked to the
original image online.
3
Belinda Campbell
Editor
It has been a big start to the 2020 year in the AMOS community.
This year we have already marked a number of milestones
for AMOS. Another successful annual conference was held in
Fremantle in February, which was accompanied by a changing
of the guard for the AMOS National Council. With these changes,
we welcome new AMOS President, Angela Maharaj, to the
publication’s pages with her first column!
This year has been notable for other reasons too, particularly
the incredible start to the year in terms of natural hazards.
Bushfires devastated millions of hectares, affecting all States and
Territories, with fires in many areas burning into the new year
after months of persistent fire activity in 2019. It was sobering
to reflect on this time last year, when we published a BAMOS
issue marking a decade since the Black Saturday bushfire event,
and find ourselves faced with another significant bushfire of
unprecedented proportions.
Australia, with its widely varying weather and climate, is 'a land
of drought and flooding rains' (and all other manner of natural
hazards) and the most recent summer is no exception to that. This
summer, in addition to the fires, Canberra was met with weeks of
smoke pollution with severe impacts on air quality; hail and mud
rain swept the eastern states across multiple events; drought
conditions persisted across large areas of the country and floods
swept through Queensland, and that is just to name a few.
Through it all the AMOS and other scientific communities were
called on for their expertise. From service delivery in weather
forecasting and warnings, to analysis and commentary on climate
variability, adaptation and air quality, many scientists were out
in the media and other channels communicating about AMOS
sciences. In this issue we share the compilation of some snippets
from articles across our sciences and beyond.
In this issue we also have the pleasure to feature the highlights
from two conferences and a workshop, the acceptance speech
for the Zillman Medal by Professor Neville Nicholls, plus a couple
of interesting pieces including a historical account of drought
from the mid-1910s, an explanation of the scientific processes
behind blue haze, and an introduction to one-line poems and
how they can be used to communicate climate impacts.
We hope you enjoy this issue and, as always, we welcome your
feedback, suggestions and, of course, contributions.