Australia

The union representing Bureau of Meteorology workers has accused the weather office of gagging employees after they drew attention to a pay freeze in social media posts.

Some staff were including #5yearpayfreeze, #SupportUs and #BoMonStrike in weather updates, in an effort to raise awareness about industrial action over their long-running pay claim.

A low in the Tasman Sea is bringing gusty winds, big waves, and showers to eastern parts of Sydney.

The first morning of winter yetserday was suitably chilly across a large swathe of central and eastern Australia.

When you think of a white winter, Sydney is not the first city that comes to mind.

But this August, the Domain will be transformed into a hub for the world's best skiers and snowboarders, who will compete in a new competition.

They will be flying down a snow-covered, 16-storey-high ski ramp next to the CBD.

Australians are under a big high. The anticyclone, which has central air pressure puffed up to 1034hPa, boldly covers much of the nation and the centre will remain parked over the Great Australian Bight for the weekend and across next week.

This placement encourages mostly sunny weather across a large portion of Australia for many days to come.

A stagnant weather pattern will lead to a run of dry and mild weather across NSW for at least the next week.

A strong high pressure system centred to the south of Australia will dominate the nation's weather throughout most of the second half of May.

The recent cold front and complex low pressure that swept across Australia's south and southeast led to some very interesting and significant weather impacts, including fires with strong winds ahead of the systems, snow flurries across the elevated areas of Victoria, Tasmania and New South Wales, and flooding rainfall to parts of these states. 

A band of rain is slowly tracking eastwards across the North Island and behind it are sunnier skies and warm light northerly quarter winds. These light winds and dry skies lie in between the main deep low out in the Tasman Sea (that has brought severe weather to south eastern Australia for the past three days) and the band of rain crossing northern New Zealand this weekend.

Updated 9:15am --- More heavy rain for some parts of the North Island today while patchy rain also expands over the upper half of the South Island. The storm in the Tasman Sea remains well away from New Zealand after bringing significant flooding to Hobart, Tasmania, on Friday night.

The Insurance Council of Australia has declared a catastrophe for storm damage in southern Tasmania, as the floodwaters recede and the rain heads to the state's north-east.

The council's CEO, Rob Whelan, said more than 1,000 claims had already been lodged by Friday afternoon.