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BAMOS Sept 2017
Article
Australia’ s record-breaking winter warmth linked to climate change
Andrew King Climate Extremes Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
It may have felt cold, but Australia’ s winter had the highest average daytime temperatures on record. It was also the driest in 15 years.
Back at the start of winter the Bureau of Meteorology forecast a warm, dry season. That proved accurate, as winter has turned out both warmer and drier than average.
While we haven’ t seen anything close to the weather extremes experienced in other parts of the world, including devastating rainfalls in Niger, the southern US and the Indian subcontinent all in the past week, we have seen a few interesting weather extremes over the past few months across Australia.
Drier weather than normal has led to warmer days and cooler nights, resulting in some extreme temperatures. These include overnight lows falling below-10 º C in the Victorian Alps and-8 º C in Canberra( the coldest nights for those locations since 1974 and 1971, respectively), alongside daytime highs of above 32 º C in Coffs Harbour and 30 º C on the Sunshine Coast.
During the early part of the winter the southern part of the country remained dry as record high pressure over the continent kept cold fronts at bay. Since then we’ ve seen more wet weather for our southern capitals and some impressive snow totals for the ski fields, even if the snow was late to arrive.
Much of the country had drier conditions than average, especially in the southeast and the west. Image: Bureau of Meteorology
This warm, dry winter is laying the groundwork for dangerous fire conditions in spring and summer. We have already had early-season fires on the east coast and there are likely to be more to come.
Climate change and record warmth
Australia’ s average daytime maximum temperatures were the highest on record for this winter, beating the previous record set in 2009 by 0.3 º C. This means Australia has set new seasonal
Winter 2017 stands out as having the warmest average daytime temperatures by a large margin. Image: Bureau of Meteorology