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Extreme temperature and precipitation events occurring in Australia in recent decades have caused significant socio-economic and environmental impacts, and thus determining the factors contributing to these extremes is an active area of research. Many recently occurring record-breaking temperature and rainfall events have now been examined from an extreme event attribution (EEA) perspective. This paper describes a set of studies that have examined the causes of extreme climate events using various general circulation models (GCMs), presenting a comprehensive methodology for GCM-based attribution of extremes of temperature and precipitation observed on large spatial and temporal scales in Australia. First, we review how Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) models have been used to examine the changing odds of observed extremes. Second, we review how a large perturbed initial condition ensemble of a single climate model (CESM) has been used to quantitatively examine the changing characteristics of Australian heat extremes. For each approach, methodological details and applications are provided and limitations highlighted. The conclusions of this methodological review discuss the limitations and uncertainties associated with this approach and identify key unexplored applications of GCM-based attribution of extremes. Ideally, this information will be useful for the application of the described extreme event attribution approaches elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which investigates the role of El Niño and human-induced climate change to the increase in likelihood of heat and drought in Indonesia in July-October 2015. The study used the temperature and precipitation to assess the extreme event in the country. Results show that the dry season was attributed to El Niño and climate change.

The article examines the possible reasons behind the heat event in Brisbane, Queelands during the G20 Summit in November 2014. Topics covered include daytime maximum temperatures, the influence of human-induced climate change on the odds of abnormally hot says in Brisband in the month of November and the conclusion that anthropogenic climate change has increased the odds of hot and very hot days.

The article examines the influence of anthropogenic forcing on the heat waves in Melbourne, Victoria in January 2014. Topics covered include records high temperature of more than 42 degrees Celsius from January 13 to 18, the influence of human-induced climate change on the likelihood of prolonged periods of extreme heat and analysis of anthropogenic influence using the fraction of attributable risk.

The article discusses the influence of human activity and extreme drought on the record heat experienced across inland eastern Australia in 2013. Topics discussed include the probability that human-induced climate change increased the risk of hot and dry years in the country and the effect of the lack of precipitation during the year to the extreme weather condition. Also mentioned are model simulations and the dataset used in the study.

The article focuses on impact of human activity on heat waves experienced in summer 2012/13 in Australia, which experienced its hottest month in January 2013 when temperature reached 36.9 degrees Celsius. Topics discussed include the results of the investigation that made use of the Community Earth System Model's preindustrial control, historical and RCP8.5 experiments, including the rapid increase in high heat wave frequency anomaly in summer 2012/13.