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 Sun 11 Nov 2018 France: The weather of the Great War. The guns fell silent in World War I one hundred years ago today. An estimated 10 million men lost their lives on the battlefield with twice that many wounded.
While we have images in our minds of countless troops in muddy trenches, we know less about how the weather influenced the course of World War I, or the science available then and how forecasts were made and spread. Météo France has put together this history of what the weather was like† during a number of the War's major episodes, such as the Battle of the Somme and the bitter winter of 1916-17. The War produced progress in the already rapidly developing field of meteorological science, especially its importance in aeronautics. This separate gallery shows how it was the dawn of a new meteorological era†.
Related to this was the work done in France by the then Public Works Department. Now the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, it has put out this set of galleries† to commemorate its efforts in and after the war to end all wars.
These are, of course, all in French. If yours is a bit rusty, your browser can probably give a good translation - if you have difficulty, read the † explanation here.
 Sun 11 Nov 2018 WA: Active thunderstorms bring heavy rain from central to southern WA. As can be seen for the rainfall map, there were heavy and widespread thunderstorm rainfalls in a large area of central and southern WA for the 24 hours to 0900 WST on Sunday 11th.
This radar animation loop centred on South Doodlakine and covering most of southwestern WA shows vast storm clusters moving from NW to SE down a trough line which itself was moving slowly eastwards. The time in EDT is given below right of the radar imagery. The animation begins at 2306 EDT (2006 WST) on Friday 9th when storms in the mid-north were still in progress from earlier Friday. They continue, losing only a little strength overnight and by 1200 EDT (0900 WST) Saturday 10th are widespread with many of them dumping heavy rain. It is only towards the end of this 33-hour loop at 0754 EDT (0454 WST) on Sunday 11th that they are weakening and exiting stage right towards SA. [The Weather Chaser]
The heaviest falls were widely spread, with 24-hour records set from the Murchison south through the Central West, Central Wheat Belt and Great Southern across to the Goldfields. Many long-standing November records fell by considerable margins in this area that typically receives between 10 and 25mm for the whole of November. They included Cue, 75km N of Mt Magnet, with 53.8mm (124 years of observations, previous November record 39.9mm), Pullagaroo, 115km S of Mt Magnet, 38.6 (86 years, previous 28.7), Allan Rocks (Little Italy), 85km NE of Lake Grace, 107.0 (48 years, previous 87.6) and Gindalbie, 60km NNE of Kalgoorlie, 32.0mm equalling a fall four years ago in an 86-year history. The 107.0 at Allan Rocks was the highest in the nation.
Sun 11 Nov 2018 QLD: Heavy rain on the Tropical Coast. While on rain, Far North QLD produced some large early wet season totals in the 24 hours to 0900 EST thanks to a slow-moving trough. There were a number of falls between 50 and 100mm between Townsville and Innisfail, with Paradise Lagoon, 60km up the coast from Townsville, top on 102mm. | 
