The Oil Drum

These two caught my eye:

Drought predicted to break soon

THE end of the drought is in sight, with climate experts detecting a weakening in the El Nino effect.
The likelihood of more normal rainfall patterns comes as the latest climate estimates suggest Australia has experienced more typical temperatures in the past 12 months.
This year is likely to rate 10th on the list of the nation's hottest years, while last year was the hottest on record.

Climate change experts, including British researcher David Viner, have been predicting this year is likely to be about the fifth-warmest worldwide.

On the drought, National Climate Centre head Michael Coughlan said there were some signs the El Nino had peaked, increasing expectations that national rainfall would shift back towards normal.

It would probably take until March for the trend to become fully known.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20984990-30417,00.htm...

Big dry's natural, not due to climate change

THE drought gripping southeast Australia is due to natural variations in climate rather than the greenhouse effect.
The finding, based on CSIRO research, undermines claims - made by South Australian Premier Mike Rann at a water summit in Canberra last month - that Australia is in the grip of a one-in-1000-years drought.
"It is very, very highly likely that what we are seeing at the moment is natural climatic variability," researcher Barrie Hunt has told The Australian, saying the CSIRO's model of 10,000 years of natural climate variability put the current drought into perspective.

"When people talk about it as a 1000-year drought, they haven't got the information. They don't understand that according to natural variability we could get another one in 50 years or it might be another 800 years, and there's no way of predicting it."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20980586-30417,00.htm...