Laure Poncet
Editor
Contents
4 President ' s report 6 AMOS 2025 Highlights
12 New South Wales Floods 2025: how a slow-moving trough caused chaos
14 As US climate data gathering is gutted, Australian forecasting is now at real risk
16 The outlook for weather and climate communications? It ' s Totally Cooked!
18 New book on Southen Hemisphere weather and climate unveiled at ICSHMO
20 The Adelaide Storm of 1948 21 Seasonal snaps 22 Obituary for Rex Falls 24 Obituary for Peter Bate 26 Charts of the Past 28 Calendar & JSHESS content
ISSN 1035‐6576 Editor: Laure Poncet Editor‐in‐Chief: Damien Irving Assistant Editors: Linden Ashcroft and Blair Trewin Design: Laure Poncet Publisher: AMOS
Contact and submit pieces: bamos @ amos. org. au. Submission guidelines are available online and at the end of this issue.
Cover Image: Snowfall in Ebor, NSW, 2 August 2025. Credit: Trudy Locke
Other images in this publication: Photographs without a specified source are obtained via the‘ pexels’ website and hyperlinked to the original image online.
Welcome to the winter issue of BAMOS for 2025!
Although spring is now around the corner, winter seems to linger with its chilly mornings. I like to think of winter as a great season for pausing, reflecting and relaxing. No pressure to go outside when it ' s cold or raining— it ' s also perfectly fine to stay indoors with a cup of tea and catch up on BAMOS.
And there ' s plenty to catch up on, especially with the AMOS Annual Conference in Cairns in June. In her first report on p. 4, our new president, Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, perfectly summarises what the AMOS community was up to that week. Thank you, Sarah, for putting this together, and I hope you enjoy your term as president!
I ' ve also selected a few photos from the conference, which you can see on p. 6. Big thanks to Boris Blanc, Martin Jucker, Tanya Patel, Yinglin Mu, Ed Doddridge and David Hutchinson for sharing their pictures of the Great Barrier Reef trip. I really regretted not joining the excursion( I get quite nervous on boats in rough waters), and even more so after seeing your amazing pictures. I ' m a big fan of snorkeling and really hope I can go back one day. For those who joined the Daintree excursion, I hope you had a great time too!
On the suggestion of our secretary Ben Hague and Sarah, this issue also includes excerpts from speeches by the Honorable Matt Kean and Prof. Tony Haymet on p. 10. We also take the opportunity to congratulate Xinyue Zhang( UNSW) for winning the best poster prize and Sienna Blankensee( University of Queensland) for giving the best student presentation at the conference.
While we reflect on these highlights, it’ s also a good time to thank Jeanette Dargaville for organising and coordinating such a successful event, as well as everyone who helped make it possible. On a personal note, I really enjoyed seeing new faces, attending interesting talks and simply soaking up Cairns ' warm and sunny weather. One highlight for me was the conference dinner and its tropical vibe fashion show. The costumes, the music, the laughter, it had it all! It was great seeing so many hit the dancefloor right after— such fun memories!
I now let you enjoy this issue and the more serious topics it covers, such as the 2025 New South Wales Flood on p. 6, the US budget cuts and what they mean for Australia ' s forecasting on p. 14, and much more. Thank you to all authors for putting together such great content! And please feel free to send your submissions, ideas or suggestions to bamos @ amos. org. au for upcoming issues. I wish you a smooth transition to spring and look forward to seeing you soon!