Unusual time for tropical cyclone activity

The tropical cyclone season for the Australian region – which includes part of the Solomon Islands – runs from November to April. This is when the oceans are warmest and the atmosphere is most supportive of cyclone development in the Southern Hemisphere tropics. The vast majority of past tropical cyclones in the Australian region have developed during this six-month period.

However, tropical cyclones can develop outside the traditional cyclone season. On rare occasions, they can even form during the Southern Hemisphere’s winter.

Since 1970, there have only been four tropical cyclones in or near the Australian region during July, according to the Bureau of Meteorology’s tropical cyclone database.

The most recent was an unnamed system that briefly became a tropical cyclone near the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in late July 2022. While this system was not named in real-time, a post-event analysis determined that it had intensified enough to be classified as a category 1 tropical cyclone.

Tropical Cyclone Raquel was the next most recent July cyclone, forming near the Solomon Islands on July 1, 2015, and dissipating the next day. Raquel was the first tropical cyclone in records dating back to 1970 to form in Australia's Eastern Region during July.

Other July tropical cyclones included one more unnamed system in 2007 and Tropical Cyclone Lindsay in 1996, both located over the Indian Ocean to the west of the Cocos (Keeling) Islands.

If a tropical cyclone does develop or move into the Australian region near the Solomon Islands later this week, it would become only the second time a tropical cyclone has formed in the Eastern Region during July.
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/rare-july-tropical-cyclone-risk-in-southwest-pacific-this-week/1891437

The 2026 Australian snow season has hit its highest snow depth yet after last weekend’s snowfalls, with hydro-electric operator Snowy Hydro measuring a snowpack 70.8 cm deep at Spencers Creek, roughly halfway between the NSW ski resorts of Perisher and Thredbo.

But at slightly lower elevations in the mountains where you’d ordinarily expect at least a thin midwinter snow cover, there is currently no natural snow at all.

Huge snow depth difference across just a few hundred metres of elevation

Snowy Hydro has three sites where it has measured the snow depth at frequent intervals in the cooler months since 1954.

Spencers Creek is the highest, at 1830 metres above sea level. Three Mile Dam, near Selwyn Snow Resort in NSW, is the lowest at 1460 metres.

The contrast between the two could hardly be more stark at present. While Spencers Creek has 70.8 cm, Three Mile Dam has no measurable snow at all.
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/snow-depth-hits-70-cm-up-high-lower-elevations-still-grassy/1891460