China Weather and When to Go 

 http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g294211-s208/China:Weather.And.When.To.Go.html

 China is a large country, similar in size to the United States, so clearly weather patterns vary enormously across the country.  Harbin in the far northeast is subject to bitterly cold winters, while Hong Kong and the Southeast have a subtropical climate, hot and humid most of the year.  One generalization holds true for much of eastern China--summers are very hot, humid and rainy.

Fire tornadoes: a rare weather phenomenon

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/fire-tornadoes-a-rare-weather-phenomenon.htm 

 

LIKE PHENOMENA OUT OF a fantasy film, fire whirls are mysterious and highly dangerous tornadoes.
Known as fire devils, fire tornadoes and even 'firenados', they can come in different sizes and intensities, and are formed in different ways depending on environmental conditions.
Most commonly, fire whirls occur when hot, strong winds, often whipping through trees, come into contact with already raging bushfires. Updraughts of hot air catch the fire and surrounding winds send it whirling into the air, sucking up debris and flammable gases.

Strange and unusual cloud formations 

http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/strange-and-unusual-cloud-formations-explained.htm 

 

ALWAYS SHIFTING AND CHANGING, clouds are capable of an incredible variety of formations. They are formed simply by the condensation of warm water vapour, but this processcan be complex and the variables many. 

Depending on the conditions, they can form all sorts of weird and wonderful embodiments, from the flying saucer-shaped lenticular cloud to the hanging tube of roll clouds.

Struck by lightning: tales from survivors

 http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/struck-by-lightning.htm

  

YOU'D EXPECT DOUGH BROAD'S tale of being struck by lightning to begin with a dark and stormy night, but it doesn’t.

"Actually, the storm had passed over," says the 42-year-old Queenslander, who was holi­daying on the Gold Coast with his wife Louise and 7-year-old daughter Phoebe in December 2005 when catastrophe hit. "Kids were out riding their bikes, people were swimming. There wasn’t any rain at all."

Doug was wiping down an outside table when a bolt of lightning struck with such force that it shook the building and knocked out the power. Louise, who was in the kitchen, thought a bomb had exploded. She raced outside to find a blackened and burnt Doug lying unconscious on the ground – one eye looking up, the other down, his hair singed and standing on end. His heart had stopped beating. Dredging up a 20-year-old memory of first-aid training, Louise commenced CPR and saved her husband’s life.

Top 10 features of 2011 

 http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/top-10-features-of-2011.htm

  

1. Earthquakes: the 10 biggest in history
Read article
Here are the 10 biggest earthquakes detected since records began.

2. Why chillies are hot: the science behind the heat
Read article
Aussies have made the world's hottest chilli, but what makes chilli hot, and what's the best cure for the burn?

3. The 10 most destructive tsunamis in history
Read article
Here are the ten biggest tsunamis in recorded history, ranked by the devastation they wrought.


4. Australia's worst cyclones: timeline
Read article
With Cyclone Yasi pounding at the door, we look back at some of the worst cyclones to lash Australia since 1899.

On this day in history: first picture of a tornado in Australia 

 http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/on-this-day-in-history-first-picture-of-a-tornado-in-australia.htm

  

MR C. HOSKEN JUST happened to be in his backyard with a camera when a large tornado tore through the town of Marong, central Victoria, on the 27 September 1911.
As the tornado approached his property from the northwest, he began taking photographs. These images are believed to be the earliest photographic records of a tornado in Australia.
"It's almost unbelievable that in 1911 someone had a camera there...and this thing touched down virtually in his back yard," says Clyve Herbert, an avid tornado researcher from Melbourne Storm Chasers.
"I've searched for years and I've never found a photograph of a tornado in Australia as early as that."

New tool predicts drought six months out 

 http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/new-tool-predicts-drought-six-months-out.htm

  

A NEW DROUGHT FORECASTING model could help water authorities prepare for droughts up to six months before they happen.

Dr Shishutosh Barua, a water engineer from Victoria University, developed the drought-prediction tool for his PhD thesis, and hopes an early warning will lessen the impact of the next inevitable dry spell on communities.

Life on the floodplains 

 http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/life-on-the-floodplains.htm

  

AS LIGHTNING CRACKED and thunder rumbled across the skies over central Queensland late 2007, rain began falling as it hadn't done for almost a decade, signalling a respite from one of the worst droughts on record for much of eastern Australia.

Almost 1000km to the south-west in the red dirt and mulga country of semi-arid NSW, local showers had also been dampening the dust on Naree, a 14,000ha pastoral property owned by the Kaluders - Paul, Debbie, and their kids Damon, Jared and Tegan. But the family was more interested in the Queensland falls and listened eagerly to the radio for flood warnings, traded news by phone with distant neighbours about river gauge readings on the Warrego River and its tributaries...and waited.