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Saturday, 4 January 2014
Australia’s hottest year recorded in 2013
Extract from The Guardian website:
Bureau of Meteorology highlights influence of carbon emissions on warming trend as temperatures rise 1.2C above average
Bushfires in New South Wales, Tasmania and
Victoria were only some of the extreme weather events experienced in
2013. Photograph: Lucas Coch/AAP
Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, the Bureau
of Meteorology has confirmed, with temperatures 1.2C above the
long-term average.
The bureau said the new high, which breaks the record set in 2005 by
0.17C, “continues the trend” of steadily rising temperatures in
Australia, which has seen the country warm by about 1C since 1950.
The year saw a number of individual records fall, including: The warmest summer and spring seasons ever recorded.
7 January was the hottest summer day ever recorded, at a national average maximum of 40.3C.
January’s heatwave set records for the hottest day, week and month on
record, as well as a new record for the number of consecutive days the
national average temperature exceeded 39C – seven days between 2 and 8
January.
The highest temperature recorded in 2013 was in Moomba in South
Australia, where the mercury rose to 49.6C – the highest in Australia
since 1998.
31 August was the warmest-ever winter day at 29.9C.
South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory all
broke their annual average temperature records, while all other states
ranked in their top four years.
Overall, 2013 was 1.2C above the long-term average of 21.8C set
between 1961 and 1990. The 10-year mean temperature for 2004 to 2013 was
0.5C above this average, with just one year in the past decade, 2011,
cooler than average.
2013 annual mean temperatures compared to historical temperature records. Click here to enlarge. Photograph: Bureau of Meteorology
In its annual climate statement report,
the bureau highlighted the influence of carbon emissions upon the
warming trend, stating: “The Australian region warming is very similar
to that seen at the global scale and the past year emphasises that the
warming trend continues.
“As summarised in the recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change Fifth Assessment Report, recent warming trends have been
dominated by the influence of increasing greenhouse gases and the
enhanced greenhouse effect.”
The bureau said sea surface temperatures were “unusually warm” in
2013, with preliminary data placing the year at 0.51C above the
long-term average. Warming oceans pose a serious threat to the Great
Barrier Reef, with coral bleaching contributing to the ecosystem losing
half of its coral cover in the past 30 years.
Nationally, rainfall was 37mm below the long-term average in 2013,
ranking it as the 52nd driest year on record. Rainfall was below average
in Queensland, Victoria and parts of NSW and South Australia. Sydney
and parts of Western Australia experienced higher rainfall than average. Annual mean temperature anomalies for Australia (compared with 1961–1990 average). Click here to enlarge. Illustration: Bureau of Meteorology
The bureau noted a number of extreme weather events, including the
heavy rain and flooding caused by ex-tropical cyclone Oswald in January,
flooding in the Pilbara caused by tropical cyclone Rusty in February
and bushfires in NSW, Tasmania and Victoria at various times during the
year.
Dr David Jones, the manager of climate monitoring and prediction at
the bureau, told Guardian Australia that the warming trend in Australia
“is very clear”.
“We have had warm excursions before but if you look at the warm and
cool anomalies, we’re now on a higher trend with higher benchmarks,” he
said.
“We are now seeing temperatures unprecedented in our records. It was the warmest-ever year last year by some degree.”
Jones said the warmest trend was strongest in the interior of
Australia, with the ocean helping coastal areas stay slightly cooler.
“In the last decade we’ve only seen one cooler-than-average year, so
unless there’s a strong La Nina event it’s unlikely we’ll see cooler
temperatures again in the near future,” he said.
“This year will probably be warmer than average. We’re not expecting
it to be a record hot year again, but with a warming planet you can’t
rule it out.”
David Karoly, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne's
school of earth sciences, said nine different climate models showed it
was impossible for the warming record to occur without human influence.
"These indicate that greenhouse climate change vastly increased the
odds of setting a new temperature record," he said. "In the model
experiments it is not possible to reach such a temperature record due to
natural climate variations alone.
"In simulations with no increases in greenhouse gases, none of the
more than 13,000 model years analysed reach the record temperature
observed in 2013. Conversely, in simulations for the period of 2006 to
2020 with natural variability and human influences, including increases
in greenhouse gases, such records occur approximately once every ten
years.
"Hence, this record could not occur due to natural variability alone
and is only possible due to the combination of greenhouse climate change
and natural variability on Australian average temperature."
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