'Ozone hole vigilance still required' bbc.com

It may be the smallest ozone hole in three decades but scientists are warning against complacency.

That's the message from Dr Jonathan Shanklin, one of the scientists who first documented the annual thinning of the protective gas in the 1980s.

This year's "hole" in the stratosphere high above the White Continent is the smallest in three decades.

It's welcome, says Dr. Shanklin, but we should really only view it as an anomaly.

The better than expected levels of ozone have been attributed to a sudden warming at high altitudes, which can occasionally happen.