From bushfires to flash flooding, what will the Australian summer of the future look like?

“State of emergency declared”, read the headlines in the days leading up to Christmas last year.

Twelve months on, and some Australian communities once under threat from fire now find themselves grappling with a new emergency as a La Nina weather pattern takes hold.

In parts of northern NSW, where flood warnings were issued this month, consecutive days of wild weather caused thousands of residents to remain on standby for evacuation.

And with the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO’s latest biannual report on the climate observing “a more tangible shift in the extremes”, questions are emerging about what the summers of the future may hold.

“The idea that we can use the past as a…