Australian Northwest Cloudband

The Australian Northwest Cloudband (NWCB), or just Northwest cloudband, is a band of a broad, continuous, moisture-laden cloud that stretches from the tropical east Indian Ocean to southern Australia, which forms in the cool season and generally brings sporadic precipitation across the Australian continent.

[2] Developing a NW-SE orientation and influenced by the Indian Ocean dipole (IOD) and the Madden-Julian oscillation (MJO), the cloudband forms when moist and warm tropical air on the Indian ocean (near Indonesia) travels towards the southeast and passes over Australia towards the western side of a high pressure system in the southeast, where they ascend over the cooler air in the mid-latitudes within the content and thus create the cloudband.

[3] The cloud band occurs when the high pressure system in the southwest thrusts the cold air from the Southern Ocean to northwest Australia, while the northeastern high pulls warm, moist air from the Coral Sea towards the center of Australia.

[10] They generally occur between March and October, but more during late autumn and early winter when the oceans around the country are warm and the subtropical jet stream is strong.

The cloudbands would have a declining trend in late winter and early spring because the country's surrounding oceans would be cooler.