Record global level of coal, oil and gas pollution is overtaking natural climate drivers like El Niño and La Niña, according to a new report by Climate Council of Australia. This is accelerating the climate whiplash phenomenon that flings communities rapidly from one disaster to the next.
The 83-page report "Breakneck Speed: Summer of Climate Whiplash" warns that even a cooling La Niña couldn’t prevent record heat and catastrophic fires across Australia this past summer.
The term "Climate whiplash" describes the rapid change between opposing weather or climate extremes like catastrophic fire conditions to flash flooding. The sudden change from one extreme to the other causes more harm than the individual events alone, affecting sectors as diverse as agriculture, infrastructure, biodiversity and human health.
The report says climate whiplash is becoming more frequent and severe in a much warmer and energetic climate, fuelled by record high global pollution from coal, oil and gas.
The report lists some of the key climate whiplash events during the quarter December 2025 to February 2026. These include the following.
- Victoria – A week after catastrophic fire weather warnings, communities along the Great Ocean Road saw cars washed out to sea in flash floods, before extreme heat returned 10 days later.
- Western Australia – the Eyre Highway – Perth’s supply route to eastern states – closed due to fires in 45°C heat, only to be cut off again two days later by floodwaters.
- South Australia – Marree, near Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, recorded five consecutive days above 48°C, including a new record high of 49.8°C in January. Just over a week later, a two-day rain event dumped 10 times the town’s normal February monthly rainfall, followed a fortnight later by eight consecutive days of rain that cut all roads into the town.
- Northern Territory – Alice Springs recorded more than 30 summer days above 40°C (almost twice its average of 17), before intense rainfall triggered dangerous flash flooding on 12 February.
- Tasmania – Strong winds fanned almost 30 bushfires on 4 December, destroying 19 homes on the east coast, with Hobart recording its windiest summer day (98kmh). Three weeks later, daily snow fell between 23 and 26 December.
Climate Councillor, meteorologist and climate expert and Monash University Adjunct Professor Andrew Watkins said, “Climate change is now firmly behind the steering wheel of Australia’s temperatures. In fact, 2025 started and ended in La Niña.”
La Niña is a climate pattern representing the cooling phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle. It usually cools large parts of Australia. Yet 2025 was the fourth hottest year for Australia, and the globe’s third hottest year on record.
Dr Watkins said, “Our hotter oceans and atmosphere also mean more water evaporates into the sky than ever before. With more moisture in the atmosphere, storms produce more rain. Some towns in western Queensland recorded their average annual rainfall within the first five weeks of 2026. Then a tropical low in February resulted in flood watches across nearly half the continent. Inland areas that had sweltered through a week of temperatures over 45°C in January were then cut off by floodwaters and quagmire roads a month later.”
Climate Councillor and former NSW fire commissioner Greg Mullins said, “We used to think of catastrophic fire conditions as once-in-a-generation events. Now they’re arriving every decade.
“The climate baseline has shifted, and that means bigger, more dangerous, destructive fires flaring up more quickly, more often. Stronger winds mean destructive fires can happen even on cooler days, like those in Tasmania which destroyed 19 homes. “We are seeing communities hit by one disaster after the next, with little recovery time,” said Mr Mullins.
Mr Mullins said, “Disasters are costing Australians dearly. This report found insurance companies paid out A$4.5bn ($3.1bn) per year on average between 2019 and 2024, more than double the average annual costs over the previous 30 years. These costs will continue to balloon unless governments stop supporting coal, oil and gas pollution and speed up the shift to clean energy.“