In the 1947 Sydney hailstorm, which occurred on 1 January 1947, a storm cell developed on the morning of New Year's Day, over the Blue Mountains, hitting the city and dissipating east of Bondi in the mid-afternoon. At the time, it was the most severe storm to strike the city since recorded observations began in 1792.
Early in the evening of Wednesday 14 April 1999, a massive hailstorm struck the southern, eastern and inner suburbs of Sydney. It produced colossal damage and over the ensuing weeks turned out to be, in insured damage terms, the most costly natural disaster ever to have occurred in Australia's history.
Cyclone Mahina, in March 1899, resulted in the greatest death toll of any natural disaster in Australian history. Over 400 people lost their lives.
The 2009 Australian dust storm, also known as the Eastern Australian dust storm, was a dust storm that swept across the Australian states of New South Wales and Queensland from 22 to 24 September 2009.
Before tropical cyclones were regularly named a system in January 1950 — labelled TC119 — made landfall on the Gulf of Carpentaria coast then tracked south and reached Sydney as a category 1 system about three days later. Sydney recorded its second lowest pressure on record at 988 HPa and 114mm of rain in 24 hours.
On 16 December 2015, a tornado with a windspeed of 213 km/h tore along Sydney's southern coast, where it ripped off roofs, destroyed homes and overturned trucks. Kurnell and Bondi Junction were the most hard hit.
In 2019, there were 14 billion-dollar weather and climate change disasters. Three of them were floods along the Mississippi, Missouri and Arkansas rivers. Approximately 14 million people were impacted by flooding this year, while 200 million were at risk.
The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Historical heatwaves
The most catastrophic heatwave, which was responsible for the death of 435 people, occurred between 1895 and 1896 and covered most of the country. In 2009, 432 people lost their lives during a heatwave in Victoria and South Australia.
On 16th September 2009, the Vienna Convention and the Montreal Protocol became the first treaties in the history of the United Nations to achieve universal ratification.
Yes, Australia has experienced several Category 5 cyclones, with notable examples including Cyclone Mahina (1899), one of the deadliest, and Cyclone Yasi (2011), a massive storm that caused extensive damage in North Queensland, along with Cyclone George (2007) and Cyclone Larry (2006). These cyclones represent the most severe category, with wind gusts of 280 km/h (175 mph) or more, highlighting their immense power and destructive potential.
In November 1970, the Bhola cyclone struck what is now Bangladesh and killed at least 300,000 people. There have been 16 tropical cyclones in the 21st century so far with a death toll of at least 1,000, of which the deadliest was Cyclone Nargis, with at least 138,374 deaths when it struck Myanmar.
Yes, Australia has experienced many Category 4 tropical cyclones, with notable examples including the devastating Cyclone Tracy in Darwin (1974) and more recent ones like Tropical Cyclone Zelia (2025) and Hayley (2025), demonstrating that Category 4 systems regularly impact the Australian region, with the potential for even higher categories like Category 5. Category 4 is the second-highest intensity level in the Australian scale, indicating severe tropical cyclones with very destructive winds.
Sydney's coldest recorded temperature at its official weather station (Observatory Hill) is 2.1°C (35.8°F) on June 22, 1932, but colder temperatures occur in outer suburbs, with areas like Richmond recording as low as -8°C (18°F), and even further out, Picton reaching -10.0°C (14.0°F) in 1970.
The 2025 WorldRiskIndex Report ranks the Philippines as the most disaster-prone country globally, scoring 46.56 out of 100 for exposure and vulnerability. Why Philippines is ranked high in disasters?
Heatwaves have been described as a “silent killer” because they do not leave the same large-scale visible scars as bushfires and floods – but extreme heat is the most common cause of weather-related hospitalisations and deaths in Australia.
The hottest temperature recorded in Australia was 50.7 °C (123 °F) in January 1960 at Oodnadatta, a desert settlement in the outback, South Australia.
In 2009, Australia was dominated by the devastating Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, which killed 173 people, destroyed thousands of homes, and scorched vast areas, setting records for fire intensity and loss of life, alongside a deadly heatwave and significant events like the first female Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, and the start of the National Broadband Network discussions, with the economy avoiding recession despite global fears.
Eric Moussambani's journey to the Olympic Games is nothing like the traditional pathway. He had only taken up swimming eight months before Sydney 2000, while the Equatorial Guinea Swimming Federation was formed just six months before the Games. And his training... well, it was less than ideal.
As a child Freeman loved running. From her teenage years she dreamed of winning an Olympic gold medal. By 2000, when the Olympics came to Australia, she was 27 years old, and at the peak of her career.
The stadium at Homebush is officially called Accor Stadium, but it's widely known by its original name, Stadium Australia, and was previously called ANZ Stadium and Telstra Stadium. It's a major sports and entertainment venue built for the Sydney 2000 Olympics in Sydney Olympic Park, Australia.
Neither the 2011 nor the 2022 floods were definitively "worse" overall; they were different, with 2022 bringing more intense rainfall and affecting more suburbs in Brisbane but having lower river peaks due to dam management, while 2011 saw higher river levels and longer isolation, making 2022 worse in terms of rainfall volume and geographic spread but 2011 worse for CBD river inundation, with records broken in different areas for both events.
The 10 Worst Floods in Australian History