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Damaging winds pass Canberra by with severe thunderstorm warning cancelled.

The world's major meteorological agencies have declared 2016 to the hottest year on record - making it three new highs in as many years - as increases in greenhouse gases drove global warming.

An adorable baby red panda who suffered horrific neck injuries has a second lease on life thanks to a cuddly toy and a Sydney zookeeper.

A large fire swallowed more than 3300 hectares as it burned east from Lake George on Tuesday afternoon.

Sydneysiders have endured yet another sticky, stifling night of summer, with the temperature not dipping below 28 degrees in the city all night.

An analysis of more than a decade of Australian bites and stings has found that the bee poses the biggest public health threat.

Climate change will result in higher humidity and more severe rainstorms, according to new Australian research.

Questions about sharks in Victoria that you probably have wondered about at some point, but never found the answers to.

Head of international energy body says policies are important, but the economic facts "are stubborn".

After a reprieve from extreme heat on Sunday, Sydney is in for one hot night on Tuesday.

ActewAGL and SES crews were on Sunday still cleaning up damage from Friday's freak windstorm.

It dropped the temperature nine degrees in nine minutes and now a major clean-up is underway in the capital after Friday's freak windstorm.

You're not wrong: Sydney has just tossed and turned through a night of "quite exceptional" heat.

As NSW residents yet again brace themselves for scorching heat with the mercury set to rise above 40c, authorities have issued a total fire ban across most of the state.

After a warm night, Melbourne woke up to light rain on Friday, a little taster of the heavier falls expected later on.

A woman in Switzerland has been refused citizenship, and therefore a passport, because her "annoying" vegan campaigning has rubbed her neighbours up the wrong way.

Power cuts, sizzled tennis players and runaway grassfires featured in another scorching summer's day in and around Sydney, with only a limited respite before the heat returns.

Sydneysiders are in for a roasting as high temperatures combine with rising humidity to make for an exceptionally uncomfortable day.

It was a tough call as to who had the more enviable job. The answer depended which end of a large and potentially dangerous predator you would rather be working on: the head (read canine teeth) or the tail (read anal gland).

A spectacular cloud formation captured during a flight over the Great Australian Bight has delighted weather enthusiasts and enraged conspiracy theorists.

Health authorities have warned Sydneysiders to be on alert as the baking sun sends temperatures and ozone levels soaring and triggers a total fire ban.

One hundred and thirty-seven years ago, well before the Calaveras North Grove was purchased by the California State Park System and renamed the Calaveras Big Trees State Park, the land's owners carved an enormous hole in the base of one of its sequoia trees. On Sunday, that tree fell.

NSW Health has issued an air pollution alert as Sydney prepares to swelter through another summer day, warning residents that an increased level of ozone in the atmosphere is likely to affect residents with respiratory problems.

Canberrans who have stepped outside and felt particularly sweaty these past four days can blame the mercury for hitting 30 degrees or higher since Friday. And they may not get some relief for at least another week.

Sydneysiders face an extended period of hot weather with warm nights likely to give only limited relief from daytime heat peaks.

In the United States in November, in a single 48-hour period, two hugely significant things happened. One of them received worldwide attention but the other, somewhat improbably, might yet turn out to be more important.

• COMMENT

Growing up in Pakistan, my favourite show was Flipper. Living in a city a thousand kilometres from the nearest ocean, it was the most I knew about our beautiful dolphin friends.