Continuing with the theme of climate extremes, this webinar explores dry and wet conditions: when do they happen and how do climate drivers, such as El Niño, play a part?
Just a handful of rainfall events can mean the difference between drought and non-drought conditions.
Join hub researcher Dr Chiara Holgate and Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick from Weather for the 21st Century for insights into the roles global warming, large-scale climate drivers and smaller-scale weather play in influencing dry conditions in Australia.
About our speakers
Dr Sarah Kirkpatrick, ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather
Sarah is a Professor of Climate Science in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at ANU. She is interested in investigating what drives heatwaves, how they may change in the future, and how these changes compare to the historical record. Sarah is also interested in extreme event attribution which involves isolating the contributors behind certain extreme events and their impacts, including natural and anthropogenic components. Her recent research also extends to new approaches in how we may attribute the impacts of certain extremes and their impacts to anthropogenic causes. The changing nature of the health impacts of heatwaves are also of interest to Sarah, which requires strong interdisciplinary collaboration with human health experts.
Currently, Sarah is the Deputy Director of Communications and Outreach in the ARC Centre of Excellence for 21st Century Weather, a chief investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, and vice president of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society. Prior to ANU she worked at UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney, and CSIRO.
Sarah is also passionate about science communication and continues to be an expert voice in various lines of national and international media and other channels of public-facing communication on all things climate change, science, and heatwaves. She is a scientific partner with the Monash Climate Change Communications Research Hub on their Hyperlocal and Climate Communicators projects.
Sarah has won various awards for her work and outreach, including the Australian Academy of Science Dorothy Hill Medal (2021); The Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society Communication and Outreach Award (2021) and Early Career Researcher Award (2016); She was also named a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher (2021; 2022; 2023).
Dr Chiara Holgate, Climate Systems Hub
Dr Chiara Holgate is a Research Associate at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes. Chiara’s research focuses on the physical processes that cause hydroclimatological extremes like droughts and flood. She has a PhD in Hydrology and Climate Science from the Australian National University and has previously worked as a Research Scientist at the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Prior to research Chiara worked as a Hydrologist and Water Resources Engineer at a global engineering consulting firm where she provided advice to government and industry in a variety of areas, including flood risk, environmental hazard strategies, and water demand, availability and quality assessment.