1 Large scale and sub-regional connections in the lead up to 2 summer heat wave and extreme rainfall events in eastern Australia 3 4 5 6 Ghyslaine BOSCHAT1, Alexandre PEZZA, Ian SIMMONDS, 7 School of Earth Sciences, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia 8 9 Sarah PERKINS, 10 ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, University of New South Wales, 11 Sydney, NSW, Australia 12 13 Tim COWAN and Ariaan PURICH 14 CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, Aspendale, Victoria, Australia 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 Submitted to Climate Dynamics 22 In revised form 23 April 2014 1 Corresponding author address : Ghyslaine Boschat, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia (
[email protected]). 1 24 ABSTRACT 25 Australia has been exposed to a vast array of extreme weather regimes over the past 26 few years, and the frequency and intensity of these events are expected to increase as 27 a result of anthropogenic climate change. However, the predictability of extreme 28 droughts, heat waves (HWs), bushfires and floods, is still hampered by our inability to 29 fully understand how these weather systems interact with each other and with the 30 climate system. This study brings new insight into the regional and large scale 31 dynamics of some extreme events in Australia, by describing and comparing the 32 climate signature of summer HWs and extreme rainfall events which have occurred in 33 the states of Victoria and Queensland respectively, during 1979-2013. 34 Our analyses highlight the importance of mid-latitude dynamics operating during 35 HWs, in contrast with more tropical interactions at play during extreme rainfall 36 events.