Australia’s winter was the warmest on record, the country’s Bureau of Meteorology said on Friday, the latest in a string of records being broken around the world as climate change intensifies.
Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Simon Grainger told AFP Australia’s average winter temperature from June to August was 16.75 degrees Celsius, surpassing the previous record set in 1996.
The first Australian weather records date back to 1910.
La Niña conditions have caused warm winters and cool, wet summers across much of Australia in recent years.
Thursday marked the second-highest maximum temperature and some of the highest minimum temperatures on record for the winter season that ended, according to meteorological data.
Australian researchers have repeatedly warned that climate change increases the risk of natural disasters such as bushfires, floods and cyclones.
After years of wet summers, experts expect the next summer to be the most intense for wildfires since 2019-2020.
During this “black summer”, fires swept across Australia’s east coast, destroying forests and millions of animals. Cities were engulfed in toxic fumes.
Earlier this year, Australia also recorded the country’s strongest winds as a severe tropical cyclone hit the northwest of the country.
The wind speed was 289 kmph.
In July 2023, heat waves and fires hit the world. According to the European Union climate monitoring agency Copernicus, this is the hottest month ever recorded on Earth.
Greenhouse gas emissions cause more intense and prolonged heat waves.
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