At least 10 individuals, including a nine-year-old girl, lost their lives during severe thunderstorms in eastern Australia on Christmas and Boxing Day.
The state of Queensland saw the majority of the casualties, leaving tens of thousands without power. Victoria and New South Wales also experienced widespread flooding and destructive winds.
The impactful storms brought strong winds that tore roofs off buildings, uprooted trees, and even ripped concrete-based electricity poles from the ground.
Despite the forecast of further thunderstorms, conditions are expected to improve over the next day.
“It’s the first time we’ve ever had a concrete power pole destroyed by a storm, that’s pretty significant. That’s unprecedented,” said Queensland Premier Steven Miles.
Residents in parts of New South Wales and South Australia were shocked to find hailstones the size of golf balls blanketing their lawns in summer.
“I haven’t seen anything like this in probably the 20 years I’ve lived in the town,” a resident of Melrose in South Australia told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
The most recent storms occurred over a week after Cyclone Jasper caused significant flooding in several parts of Queensland, with some areas receiving more rain in a matter of days than they would have in a year.
According to Mr. Miles, the damage caused by both storms could be worth billions of dollars.
They come after a string of heatwaves that have caused recent bushfires in several states, including New South Wales.
El Nino weather, usually linked to extreme events like cyclones and wildfires, is currently affecting the nation.
“When you start to piece together the experiences of this summer so far it is clear that we are living through an era of escalating climate consequences,” Simon Bradshaw, research director at the Climate Council – an independent communications organisation – told the Reuters news agency.
Australia has been plagued by a series of disasters in recent years – severe drought and bushfires, successive years of record floods, and six mass bleaching events on the Great Barrier Reef.
A future of worsening disasters is likely unless urgent action is taken to halt climate change, the latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report warns.
Among the 10 people killed in the extreme weather over Christmas and Boxing Day was a girl, named in local media as nine-year-old Mia Holland-McCormack, whose body was found in a flooded storm drain after she went missing.
“Mia loved adventures and getting up to mischief,” reads a statement from a relative on a GoFundMe fundraising page set up to help Mia’s family following her death.
Three men drowned after a yacht capsized near Moreton Bay, off the coast of the city of Cairns. A further eight people had to be rescued from the water.
A man whose body was found in Victoria’s Gippsland region is thought to have been camping with a woman who was also killed.
Two women were found dead north of Brisbane after being swept away by floodwaters into a storm drain, while a further two people were killed after being hit by falling trees.