Latest news with #coldWeather
News.com.au
17-06-2025
- Climate
- News.com.au
‘What year?': Expat questions why Aussie homes are so cold
A Swiss expat has humorously questioned 'what year' Aussie home builders will discover insulation as the country shivers through a frosty start to winter. Much of the country's east has braced freezing temperatures in a cold snap that started over the King's Birthday long weekend, with snow blanketing NSW's central tablelands and areas as far north as Mt Isa in northwest Queensland recording their lowest temperatures in decades. Leandro Tonet, an online homeschooling entrepreneur living in NSW's Byron Bay, shared a viral clip to Instagram over the weekend, rugged up in a beanie and trackies, warming his hands in front of the kitchen stove. 'POV: You're Swiss living in Australia and you're wondering what year insulation will be invented …' the video text read. 'Apparently the coldest place in Australia is our bathroom,' he captioned the video. 'When it's 8C outside, it's 8C inside. Someone please tell Aussie builders how to insulate homes. Fellow expats DO YOU FEEL ME?!?!' 'Russian freezing in Australia asking the same question,' one commenter wrote. 'It's actually colder inside,' another said. A third wrote, 'There are people in Sydney who only ever wear shorts all year round. In winter they will insist they are fine with it, that the cold weather will pass in no time. It's just a thing here.' Mr Tonet has been contacted for comment. The fact that Australian homes tend to be colder in winter compared with those in other countries is no secret. 'The short answer is that most Aussie homes just weren't designed with winter in mind,' said Gerry Wallace, managing director at building firm Greenline Australia. 'It's a systemic result of decades of summer-first design, minimal insulation, and building policies that favoured cooling performance.' Mr Wallace said there were a number of key culprits 'we see over and over again' — number one being outdated building standards. 'Homes built before the early 2000s were rarely insulated to any decent standard,' he said. 'Some still have zero insulation in the walls or floors.' Poor sealing and draught control also means 'a lot of homes here leak air like a sieve'. 'Gaps around windows, doors, floorboards, and even downlights all let warm air escape,' he said. 'That's a major reason heating feels useless in winter.' And single-glazed windows 'are still everywhere'. 'They let out heat faster than people realise and make a huge difference in how cold a home feels,' Mr Wallace said. He added that Australia's climate has traditionally meant a 'design bias' towards summer, focusing on keeping cool in hot months. 'Wide eaves, open-plan layouts, and high ceilings might help in summer, but they don't do you any favours when the temps drop,' he said. Slow policy shifts mean these problems linger. 'Even now, our minimum energy standards lag behind countries with similar climates,' Mr Wallace said. 'NatHERS [the Nationwide House Energy Rating Scheme] is improving — from six-star to seven-star minimums — but a lot of housing stock is still stuck at one or two stars.' Dr Tim Law, head of building sciences at insurance consultancy RIC Solutions, pointed out that Europe and North America 'had to confront the energy crisis of the 1970s, which forced these countries to confront the issues of building energy efficiency much earlier than Australia'. 'The major population centres in Australia are also located in fairly benign weather areas,' he said. 'These, together with the abundance of coal and gas deposits in Australia, [have] seen us come later in addressing energy efficiency in buildings.' According to Dr Law, one of the big challenges faced in designing new buildings to be more comfortable in colder months was that the regulatory system was based on the energy simulation. 'There is still very little data on whether a house that passed the simulation criteria is actually performing as simulated, or delivering on conditions assumed to be comfortable,' he said. 'The assumption is that houses are built as simulated and that the simulation is correct. However, in an age of AI hallucinations, I think it is proper for us to revert to real world measurements to ensure that the simulations are actually delivering buildings that are comfortable and energy efficient.' The other major challenge, Dr Law added, was the balancing act between energy efficiency and health. 'The countries that imposed energy efficiency measures during the energy crisis soon discovered that those provisions created a condensation and mould problem,' he said. 'Australia's houses had minimum energy efficiency stipulations in 2003, but condensation management provisions were only required after 2019.' He warned this unintended consequence of condensation and mouldy buildings across all Australian states and climate zones 'reveals that we have not been getting the balance correct'. 'It is not necessarily the right priority to be pushing for energy-efficient buildings that make us thermally comfortable but sick from mould,' he said. Dr Law suggested the 'most powerful behavioural modification is that of moderating one's expectation of comfort'. 'Heating the entire space is always going to be more energy demanding than heating the individual, just as heating a part of the body requires less energy than the whole,' he said. 'As a practical example, the Japanese have the concept of Kotatsu. It is a low table draped with a heavy blanket-like curtains on four sides, with an optional small heater mounted beneath the table. A user sits on the floor with legs tucked under the table and blankets.' However, Goran Surbevski, senior comfort expert at Alliance Climate Control, said it was 'deeply concerning' that 60 per cent of Australians 'live in homes with unsafe indoor temperatures, and a third of these people say they struggle to heat their homes properly regularly'. 'More than half of those living in homes below 18C, who also report being unable to heat their homes comfortably, are relying on inefficient heating methods like electric or gas room heaters, portable heaters, or no heating at all,' he said. 'Nearly a quarter of Aussies say living in a cold home has led to health issues. It's clear more needs to be done by homeowners and landlords to improve living conditions and protect people's wellbeing.'
News24
04-06-2025
- Climate
- News24
Thursday's weather: Light rain, cloudy and cold conditions in most regions
Light rain and cold conditions are forecast for at least seven provinces, according to the South African Weather Service (SAWS). A warning of damaging winds has been issued for some parts of KwaZulu-Natal. Impact-based warnings Yellow Level 1 warning: Damaging winds in KwaZulu-Natal (Port Edward to Kosi Bay), which may result in localised disruption in small harbours or ports, risk of small vessels taking on water or capsizing, and difficulty in navigation expected. In the SAWS' colour-coded weather warning system, yellow indicates a moderate risk of impact that requires caution and awareness. SAWS uses the numbers to indicate the likelihood of weather-based impacts occurring. Level 1 is medium, Levels 2 and 6 are high, and Level 4 is low. WHAT IS AN IMPACT-BASED WEATHER WARNING? Thread🧵 — SA Weather Service (@SAWeatherServic) April 15, 2025 Gauteng: Partly cloudy and cool. Mpumalanga: Cloudy and cold to cool with chances of light rain in the east, clearing to partly cloudy skies in the evening. Mbombela: 11° — 17° Ermelo: 7° — 16° Emalahleni: 7° — 17° Standerton: 5° — 18° Skukuza: 13° — 20° Limpopo: Partly cloudy and cold to cool, with a possibility of light rain in the eastern regions. Polokwane: 9° — 17° Phalaborwa: 14° — 19° Tzaneen: 11° — 18° Musina: 12° — 23° Lephalale: 9° — 22° Mokopane: 9° — 20° North-West: Partly cloudy and cool. Klerksdorp: 6° — 20° Potchefstroom: 7° — 20° Mahikeng: 8° — 20° Rustenburg: 9° — 20° Vryburg: 7° — 22° Free State: Partly cloudy and cold to cool. Isolated evening showers and thundershowers are expected in the southern areas. Bloemfontein: 5° — 20° Welkom: 7° — 20° Bethlehem: 5° — 17° Northern Cape: Fine in the west with coastal evening fog. Partly cloudy and cool to warm elsewhere, with isolated evening showers and thundershowers over central and south-eastern parts. Light to moderate south to south-westerly wind is expected along the coast. Upington: 7° — 24° Kimberley: 6° — 23° De Aar: 5° — 21° Alexander Bay: 9° — 22° Springbok: 12° — 22° Calvinia: -1° — 20° Sutherland: -4° — 18° Western Cape: Fine and cool to cold with morning frost in some interior regions. Light to moderate north-easterly winds in the south and south-west, turning south to south-westerly in the west. Cape Town: 11° — 19° Vredendal: 6° — 23° Riversdale: 5° — 21° George: 5° — 19° Worcester: 6° — 21° Beaufort West: 5° — 23° Oudtshoorn: 5° — 19° Eastern Cape: Morning fog patches south of the escarpment. Fine and cool, becoming partly cloudy with isolated thundershowers in the north. Gqeberha: 10° — 21° Makhanda: 7° — 20° Cradock: 0° — 22° Graaff-Reinet: 0° — 24° East London: 11° — 22° Port St Johns: 13° — 23° Mthatha: 4° — 21° Komani: 0° — 21° Qonce: 8° — 23° KwaZulu-Natal: Cloudy and cool to cold, with isolated showers and rainfall along the coast; otherwise, there will be a clearing trend to partly cloudy conditions by the afternoon. Light to moderate south-westerly winds south of Mandeni; otherwise, moderate to fresh south-easterly, shifting to easterly to north-easterly in the afternoon.
CTV News
23-05-2025
- Climate
- CTV News
Montrealers will have to wait until June for summer weather: meteorologist
A Montrealer bundles up while on a walk on May 23, 2025. (Kelly Greig/CTV News) Warm, sunny summer weather is just around the corner, promises Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), but Montrealers will have to push through a few more days of cold and rain to get there. 'It's not very pleasant, for sure. We would normally be expecting temperatures of about 20 degrees [Celsius], 21 degrees for a high today,' explains Peter Kimbell, a warning preparedness meteorologist with ECCC. 'And here we are stuck at 10 [degrees Celsius] or so.' He adds that the last time Montreal saw temperatures below 12 degrees Celsius on a date following the Victoria Day long weekend was May 25, 2013. 'This kind of thing does happen when we get stuck in a cold, low-pressure we get stuck in a rainy situation,' said Kimbell. 'We've seen it before. Not pleasant. We'll get through it, but here we are.' He says that another few days of rainy weather are expected, though the sun could start to poke through on Monday -- followed by another potential rainfall by the weekend. 'It's safe to say that the greatest probability of sustained periods of warm weather, we'll have to wait for the beginning of June,' said Kimbell. All the same, he points out that the weather this year is actually quite average. The month has, so far, brought 82 mm of rain, while the average is 86 mm. The record for the coldest daytime high on May 23 was 9.4 degrees Celsius in 1892.
