Dust storms, raging bushfires, gale-force winds, heatwaves, thunder and snow, flash flooding and driving rain -- Australia is enduring a bout of wild weather that's hit all parts of the vast continent in recent days.
Varied weather is not uncommon during spring in the southern hemisphere nation as summer beckons.

Squatting on spongy soil, a climate scientist lays a small cone-shaped device to "measure the breathing" of a peat bog in the northern part of Canada's Quebec province.
Michelle Garneau, a university researcher and a member of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is collecting the first data on areas flooded to build the new Romaine hydroelectric dams in a bid to assess the project's impact on the region.

A large dust storm swirled over eastern Australia on Thursday, driven over the coast by a weather front barrelling across the drought-stricken interior.

World leaders will participate in an innovative climate change summit on Thursday that will take place entirely online so it is carbon neutral.

A swimmer died after a rare suspected stingray attack off an Australian beach while another two people were mauled in separate shark encounters this weekend.
The 42-year-old's death came more than a decade after world-renowned "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin was killed when a stingray barb punctured his chest while he was filming on the famed Great Barrier Reef.

Hundreds of climate change protesters blocked London bridges on Saturday demanding a dramatic new environmental policy.

Rapid population growth and poor infrastructure have put two out of three cities in Africa at "extreme risk" of the threats posed by climate change, according to a new analysis released Wednesday.

Johannesburg Zoo is under mounting pressure to send a lonely elephant to an animal sanctuary after her male companion died last month.
Protesters dressed in elephant costumes have been demonstrated at the zoo entrance, while online petitions have garnered over 100,000 signatories, clamoring for 39-year-old Lammie to start a new life in the company of other elephants.

A rapidly spreading, late-season wildfire in northern California has burned 20,000 acres of land and prompted authorities to issue evacuation orders for thousands of people.

Air pollution in New Delhi hit hazardous levels Thursday after a night of free-for-all Diwali fireworks, despite Supreme Court efforts to curb the smog-fuelling partying.
