Century old records tumble as ‘heat dome’ persists
While the heat wave triggered by climate change affected the continent, more temperature records of all time were broken in the inner parts of Australia.
Some of the highest temperatures included the South Australian outback town of Maree, where the mercury poked 49.8 degrees.
Roxby Downs recorded 49.6C, while Woomera climbed to 48.5C and Leigh Creek to 48.2C; These temperatures have never been seen before.
Maree was the hottest spot on the planet for one day, according to online world temperatures site El Dorado Weather.
Australia also had all 15 of the world’s hottest spots in the 24 hours to 8am on Thursday.
Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the fierce heat had broken dozens of temperature records in South Australia, NSW and Victoria over the course of a week.
What makes this event more unusual, he said, is its longevity, meaning there was more time for heat to build.
“It was a bit of a hindering nature,” a Bureau of Meteorology forecaster told AAP.
“So the heat settled in on us and it just kind of lurched around the southeastern part of the country without a strong cold front to come in and clear it out.”
Mr Narramore said the records broken were from multiple generations, with some having stood for a century.
“They’re not just 10 or 20 years old; they’re 30, 50, 80 and in some cases 100 years old,” he said.
“A lot of records look like the heat wave of 1939, so that goes back a long way.”
Heatwave warnings remain in place for NSW, Victoria, Queensland, WA, SA, ACT and NT on Friday.
Maree (49C), Port Augusta (49C), Roxby Downs (48C), Moomba (47C) and other eastern and north-eastern parts of SA were facing another disaster.
The mercury is also expected to reach 47C in Birdsville, 46C in Mildura, 45C in Broken Hill and 43C in Wagga Wagga.
Among the capital cities, Adelaide (41C) and Canberra (40C) will face the heaviest blow from the heat.
Mr Narramore said climate change was a contributing factor to the conditions.
“Obviously there is warming in the background, so there is more energy and more heat in the atmosphere,” he said.
“So when the systems are tuned for those extreme scenarios, they get a little bit hotter and last a little bit longer.”
Severe and extreme conditions are expected to ease in almost all parts of the country by Sunday, bringing an end to the so-called “heat dome”.
However, this summer, we may be expecting more heat waves throughout February and March.
Mr Narramore said average temperatures in Australia were one to one and a half degrees higher than they were a century ago.
federal government National Climate Risk AssessmentThe report, published last September, predicted that the number of severe heatwave days per year would double at 2°C of warming and quadruple at 3°C.
Heat-related deaths are expected to increase fivefold with 3°C warming.
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