Record high temperatures Down-Under

Australia Has its Hottest September as Fire Threat Grows

Climate Central,

3 October, 2013

Winter may just be ending in Australia, but temperatures are already summerlike. September was one for the record books, with hot temperatures that baked the country from the outback to the coasts and made this the hottest September in the country’s 104 years of record-keeping. The warm start to Australia’s spring keeps the country on a path to having its warmest year on record. Following a wet winter, warmer-than-average conditions have also put parts of the country on watch for yet another intense wildfire season.

Nationally, September temperatures averaged nearly 5°F above normal. That beat the previous hottest September, set in 1983, by a full 2°F. This September also happened to be the most anomalously warm month of record, narrowly edging April 2005 by 0.2°F. In other words, Australia has never had a month so freakishly above average.

Parts of Australia experienced temperatures that were nearly 10°F above average this September, which was Australia's hottest on September record.

Credit: Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

The unusually warm weather wasn’t isolated to a specific part of the country. Of the seven states in Australia, five experienced record-high average temperatures. However, the two regions where records weren’t set, Tasmania and Western Australia, weren’t far behind. This was Tasmania’s third warmest September and Western Australia’s fourth warmest.

Though September was record-setting, August also had a notable ending. On August 31, the last day of winter, average temperatures reached 85.9°F. That’s the warmest last day of winter recorded in Australia.

The warm weather is part of longer-term hot streak for the "Land Down Under." Temperatures soared so high in January, during the continent's summer season, that the Australian Bureau of Meteorology famously had to add a new color to its temperature map to account for the unrelenting heat.

The summer of 2013 ended up being Australia's hottest on record, and since January, monthly temperatures have stayed above normal. The average temperature for the year-to-date is 2.8°F above normal. If the year ended today, this would be Australia's hottest year-to-date, putting it ahead of 2005 by a full half a degree Fahrenheit.

Warmer-than-average days are projected across much of Australia through the end of the year. That means Australia could be on pace to have its warmest year on record.

Credit: Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

But the year will roll on for three more months, and there’s little relief in site. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting warmer-than-average conditions through year's end for much of the country. A small part of Australia’s interior is forecast to have near normal temperatures, but that’s little consolation given that 85 percent of the country’s population lives within 31 miles of the coast.

More ominous than the warm weather itself is what could come with it. According to the Bushfire Cooperative Research Center, areas along the east and west coasts of Australia are forecast to have an above-normal bushfire season after a wet winter helped build vegetation. The persistently warmer-than-average conditions this spring have helped dry those grasses and build fuel for fires.

The Australian newspaper has already reported large wildfires near Sydney, where an iconic lighthouse was saved by firefighters last week. Earlier in the month, The Guardian also reported on an unusually quick start to the bushfire season after 60 fires broke out on September 10 in New South Wales, Australia’s most populous state. Australia had a particularly severe fire season last summer amid record heat and drought conditions.

While the hot start to the spring hasn’t been attributed to climate change, the trend is consistent with what one would expect. Will Steffen, a scientist with the Australian Climate Council, told the Sydney Morning Herald that ocean surface temperatures around Australia are up to 5.4°F above normal for this time of year, and that could be one of the drivers behind the high temperatures over land. Such ocean temperatures may be due to a combination of natural climate variability and long-term manmade climate change.

Steffens and the Council, which until recently was funded by the Australian government, also issued a report about the September heat that said, “climate change is increasing the risk of more frequent and longer heatwaves and more extreme hot days, as well as exacerbating bushfire conditions.” Citing the latest findings from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the report said, “Extreme heat will become an even more common occurrence as the climate continues to warm.”

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Meanwhile it felt warmer than normal in New Zealand because it was.

NZ: Warmest-ever winter - climate scientist

A climate scientist says New Zealand is likely to have its warmest-ever winter.

Onenews,

25 August, 2013

With only a few days to go, climate scientist Jim Salinger says the country has so far experienced its warmest winter since reliable records began in the 1860s.

And Mr Salinger says the door to cold spells from the Southern Oceans is well and truly closed at the moment with September-like temperatures already occurring throughout August.

The mean winter temperature, with 7 days to go, for the 7 indicator stations that NIWA uses has been a record 9.5C, a full 1.2C above the 1971-2000 winter normal of 8.3C.

And August has behaved like September with temperatures 1.9C above normal.

The previous warmest winter occurred in 1998 with a mean temperature of 9.3C, 1.0C above normal.

Reliable records in New Zealand date back to the late 1860s when precision instruments were installed.

Mr Salinger says the clearest climate warming signal is seen in winter, where temperatures are now 1.1C warmer than they were around 1870.

He says the warming trends have been very consistent, especially since the 1950s, since when frosts days have decreased dramatically across the country.

And 2013 is shaping up to be Australia's hottest year on record. The last 10 months have been abnormally warm across Australia with a notable lack of unusually cold weather over winter.

Not in the New Zealand media, this one

Climate Change: New Zealand Has Hottest Winter Ever, More Pests Attack Crops Due to Global Warming

New Zealand is currently experiencing its warmest winter yet as long-standing winter temperature records since the 1800s have been broken throughout the country especially in the South Islands.

IBTimes,

25 August, 2013

NIWA principal scientist Dr Brett Mullan said the current winter's average temperatures were recorded to be above the average throughout Otago and the Southland.

Despite the cold snap in New Zealand in June 19 to 21, with winds that ravaged Wellington and brought snow to the most part of the South Island, the rest of the winter was warm, according to Kiwi climate research organisation National institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

The mean temperature in New Zealand was pegged at 9.5C which was 1.2C above the winter temperature average. The mean temperature was measured using the seven station temperature series measurement method of NIWA which started in 1909.

This year's winter in New Zealand was 0.3 degrees warmer that the previously recorded warm winter in in 1984.

The winter season should have brought lowered the temperatures but they were particularly high in Otago, Southland, coastal and inland Canterbury , the northern part of Ashburton and some parts of the North Island.

In the South Island, mean temperatures will be expected to be 1.5C higher than the average winter temperature.

New Zealand's lack of the usual Antarctic chill may be attributed to global warming based on NIWA climate scientist Brett Mullan. He said the winter in New Zealand had few southerly winds with warmer winds from the north. He also believed that the world weather was in a warming pattern.

The "warm" winter may be a boon to farmers who were still recovering from the drought. Mr Mullan said a milder weather will allow grass to grow in the farms.

In Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology has announced that the country is experiencing its hottest year yet with average temperatures of 22.9C from Sept. 2012 to Aug. 2013.

Global warming attracts pests

Aside from warm winters due to a warming pattern in global weather, a new study revealed that global warming was attracting pests to wreak havoc on crops worldwide.

Scientists from the Oxford and Exeter universities had found that as regions begin to have warmer temperatures, agricultural pests were moving towards the north and south poles. The results of the study were published in the Nature Climate Change journal.

It was estimated that about 10 to 16 per cent of crops around the world were destroyed due to disease outbreaks. Researchers have also warned that increasing global temperatures would only make the problem worse.

Dr. Dan Bebber, lead study author from the University of Exeter, said the rising temperatures could affect global food security. This might be one of the major challenges the world will have to face in the coming years.