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A recent report is raising the alarm about a growing trend in extreme, short bursts of rainfall across Australia.

The Bureau of Meteorology's Special Climate Statement 76 said that short and intense rainstorms have increased by about ten per cent in some regions over the past decade, especially in northern parts of the nation.

According to the report, released in the wake of the catastrophic floods which hit Queensland and New South Wales earlier this year, the warming climate will see more heavy rainfall events become even more intense in the future.

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"A warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapour than a cooler atmosphere," the report outlined.

"This relationship alone can increase moisture in the atmosphere by seven per cent one degree Celsius of global warming".

The report also detailed the record-breaking rain that flooded south-east Queensland and eastern New South Wales earlier this year.

The Bureau said that during the February and March floods, more than 50 areas recorded more than one metre of rain in one week.

According to the report, some areas were hit with 2.5 to 5 times their monthly average rainfall.

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Destructive episodes of flash flooding swallowed entire towns from Maryborough in Queensland down to Grafton in NSW, and a collective 22 people died as a result.

The report said for dozens of towns, "this was the wettest week since 1990".

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"Some areas of south-eastern Queensland had their highest flood peaks since 1893, though the lower Brisbane and Bremer rivers and Lockyer Creek peaked below the levels of both January 1974 and January 2011 floods," the report outlined.

Northern NSW saw all previous flood level records broken.

Lismore's Wilsons River peaked at 14.4 metres on February 28, breaking the 1954 record of 12.27 metres.

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The Bureau said the rain was a result of a combination of weather systems.

"A large volume of humid tropical air moving onshore over eastern Australia was lifted in the atmosphere to produce heavy rain and thunderstorms," the report said.

The climate statements aim to provide details surrounding significant weather events that impact Australians.

The most recent analysis of the February-March floods has been added to a historical collection of reports dating back more than 15 years.

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An extra 1.5 million Australians are eligible for a fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose under new guidelines from ATAGI.

Interim Health Minister Katy Gallagher said she had received the advice this week.

A fourth dose is now recommended for people with underlying health conditions and people who have a disability.

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They will be able to receive the fourth dose from May 30.

This is alongside the previously eligible categories: people aged 65 and over, residents of aged care homes, people who are severely immunocompromised, and Indigenous people aged over 50.

"Essentially, for people who think they fall into that category, check it out and make sure you are getting your fourth dose," Gallagher said.

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The updated advice from ATAGI comes ahead of a winter where it's feared the flu will strike vulnerable populations alongside a resurgent COVID-19.

Gallagher said there was no issue with vaccine supply.

However, a fourth dose was not yet being advised for the general population.

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"So their clear advice is that the fourth dose extension is for those people who would be most susceptible and most vulnerable to severe disease from contracting COVID," Gallagher said.

She said the incoming full-time health minister, who is set to be sworn in next week, will receive a full briefing on COVID-19 in Australia, including whether further measures were needed to address it.

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Politicians, celebrities, gun control campaigners and sport stars have reacted to the Texas primary school shooting that left 21 people dead.

An 18-year-old gunman opened fire on Wednesday (AEST) at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, about 130km west of San Antonio, killing 19 students and two adults.

US authorities identified the shooter as local Salvador Ramos, who was believed shot dead by law enforcement officers.

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It was the deadliest shooting at a US primary school since the shocking attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.

And it came just 10 days after a gunman in body armour killed 10 Black shoppers and workers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, in what authorities say was a racist attack.

US President Joe Biden addressed the Texas school shooting in emotional remarks from the White House, saying: "I had hoped when I became President I would not have to do this again."

"There's a lot we don't know yet. There's a lot we do know. Parents who will never see their child again, never have them jump in bed and cuddle with them. Parents who will never be the same. To lose a child is like having a piece of your soul ripped away," Biden, who has before spoken in deeply personal terms about the family tragedies he has endured, said.

Turning to the issue of gun control legislation, Biden implored politicians to "turn this pain into action".

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The shooting in Uvalde is all too familiar to some residents of Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot and killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

One of them was Erica Lafferty, daughter of Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, the slain principal of the Sandy Hook school.

"It is just all too familiar and completely devastating. As soon as I heard the news, my mind immediately went back" to the day of the Sandy Hook shooting, she said.

"These families in that community are walking into hell and there is definitely a network of people out there who have lived it, who are stepping up to support them … But it's not going to just go away. Not for the families, not for the community.

"It's life-changing. It's devastating. It's traumatising, and every single time it happens, it brings it back like it was yesterday," Lafferty said.

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Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who has repeatedly pushed for legislative action following the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, said: "This only happens in this country, and nowhere else. Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking they might be shot that day.

"Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in a classroom because they think they're going to be next.

"What are we doing? Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job — of putting yourself in a position of authority — if your answer is that as the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing."

Basketball superstar LeBron James tweeted his thoughts following the shooting.

"Like when is enough enough man!!! These are kids and we keep putting them in harms way at school. Like seriously "AT SCHOOL" where it's suppose to be the safest!"

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called out politicians in Washington in a fiery speech about the school shooting ahead of the NBA play-off game between the Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks.

A fiery Kerr opened his remarks by telling the press "basketball questions don't matter" right now. Kerr, while banging on the table he was seated at, said: "When are we going to do something?"

Kerr called out "50 senators who refuse to vote on HR-8," a House bill that strengthens firearm background checks, claiming, "they won't vote on it because they want to hold onto their own power."

Actress Bette Midler echoed Kerr and took aim at the gun lobby and right-wing US politicians.

She tweeted: "This nation is full of people who cannot control their worst impulses and the innocent always pay the price.

"Don't save fetuses only to have them die at school because you love your guns more than life. Shame."

Former president Barack Obama responded to the shooting in Texas by saying the United States "is paralysed, not by fear, but by a gun lobby and a political party that have shown no willingness to act in any way that might help prevent these tragedies".

"It's long past time for action, any kind of action. And it's another tragedy—a quieter but no less tragic one—for families to wait another day. May God bless the memory of the victims, and in the words of Scripture, heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds."

School shootings in the US

There have been dozens of shootings and other attacks in US schools and colleges over the years, but until the massacre at Colorado's Columbine High School in 1999, the number of dead tended to be in the single digits.

Since then, the number of shootings that included schools and killed 10 or more people has mounted.

The most recent two were both in Texas.

Robb Elementary School, Texas, May 2022

An 18-year-old gunman opened fire on Wednesday (AEST) at primary school in Uvalde, Texas. The death toll currently stands at 18.

Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, February 2018

An attack left 14 students and three staff members dead at the school in Parkland, Florida, and injured many others. The 20-year-old suspect was charged with murder.

Sandy Hook Elementary School, Connecticut, December 2012

A 19-year-old man killed his mother at their home in Newtown, Connecticut, then went to the nearby Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 20 first graders and six educators. He took his own life.

Virginia Tech, April 2007

A 23-year-old student killed 32 people on the campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, in April 2007; more than two dozen others were wounded. The gunman then killed himself.

Columbine High School, April 1999

Two students killed 12 of their peers and one teacher at the school in Littleton, Colorado, and injured many others before killing themselves.

– Reported with Associated Press, CNN

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