Australia suffers hottest decade as globe warms
Earl Evleth
(AFP) � 11 hours ago
SYDNEY � Australia has sweltered through its hottest decade on record,
officials said Tuesday, linking a rise in heatwaves, drought, dust storms
and extreme wildfires with global warming.
The Bureau of Meteorology also said 2009 was the second warmest year since
detailed records began in 1910, with an annual mean temperature almost one
degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above average.
Senior climatologist Dean Collins said the average for the decade -- about
22.3 degrees Celsius (72.1 Fahrenheit) -- was 0.48 degrees Celsius (0.89 F)
above Australia's 1961-1990 benchmark average and an indication of man-made
global warming.
"For the past six decades, each decade has been warmer than the preceding
one," Collins told AFP.
"To get six, seven decades in a row that are warmer than the previous one --
it doesn't happen by chance. It's reflecting what's happening at the global
level."
Collins said while the higher temperatures were partly caused by an El Nino
event in the Pacific -- a weather effect associated with drier conditions --
they had been superimposed on human-induced global warming.
Australia experienced three record-breaking heatwaves around the country in
2009, a highly unusual event which Collins said was consistent with global
warming.
"Global warming increases the chance of getting heatwaves like that but we
can't categorically say it wouldn't have happened without global warming,"
he said.
"All we can really say is that global warming has increased the chance of
getting those kinds of events."
The bureau expects more of the same in 2010, with a bias towards warm
weather in the first three months of the year, Collins said.
Australia began 2009 with uncomfortably hot temperatures in the country's
south with extreme heatwaves in Victoria and the island of Tasmania.
The bureau said these conditions contributed to the so-called "Black
Saturday" bushfires in which 173 people perished as firestorms levelled
entire villages, destroying more than 2,000 homes.
An unusual winter heatwave hit large parts of inland Australia mid-year and
resulted in the country's warmest August on record, while another hot spell
in November broke records in South Australia and New South Wales.
"Based on the analysis of daily (maximum and minimum) temperature data above
and below set thresholds, there are clear upward trends in the number of hot
events and downward trends in the number of cold events (over the period
1960 to date), consistent with the background of global warming," the bureau
said.
According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2009 was the fifth
warmest year for the planet on record.
Jean Smith
wrote:
Did they get a break from the drought which was the last weather news from
Australia?
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mg
There's an old saying that says everyone talks about the weather, but
no one does anything about it. That's not completely true in
Australia, though, farmers are doing something about it. They are
committing suicide:
"Australia drought sparks suicides
By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Sydney
Australia's severe drought has led to an alarming rise in the number
of suicides among farmers.
One farmer takes his life every four days, according to the national
mental health body Beyond Blue.
The group has called for psychologists to tour agricultural areas to
combat anxiety, stress and depression.
Earlier this week, Prime Minister John Howard tried to address the
growing problem of rural poverty by announcing a $263m aid package for
farmers.
With the drought now in its sixth year, Australia's big dry is the
worst in over a century.
Farmers have been hardest hit, forced to make a living sometimes in
dustbowl conditions, raising emaciated cattle. . . ."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6065220.stm
El Castor
wrote:
Sadly, not as warm as 1998 -- even though anthropogenic CO2 has
increased substantially in the interim. Curious, that.
Earl Evleth
Castor" <No_...@Here.Com> wrote:
> Sadly, not as warm as 1998
1998 is disputed as being the warmest year, you still
are not aware of that.
In fact NASA gives the warmest year award to
http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/Fig.A2.pdf
2005, which had a global anomaly of 0.63 vs
1998 value of 0.56.
More importantly the '00 were the warmest decade
so far measured.
It is not loyal of you to prefer numbers from the UK
over the American. :-)
El Castor
wrote:
>Australia suffers hottest decade as globe warms
"Cold weather smashes records
Martin Palmer, Thursday June 11, 2009 - 18:01 EST
A bumper start to the ski season, Canberra frozen, snow over the
Melbourne hills, widespread severe frost and records are falling.
The cold snap is abating slowly, but not before a final icy sting that
has seen records fall across the southeast in the last 24 hours. Frost
under clear skies last night was severe in much of the inland, notably
Canberra's -5.8 degrees this morning, their coldest for June in nine
years.
Yesterday, Thredbo reached a high of -6.4 degrees, the coldest maximum
recorded in New South Wales for 31 years. Last night, Cabramurra's
minimum fell to a 12 year low of -6.8 degrees. Coastal locations also
felt the cold with Montague Island's mercury levelling out at three
degrees last night, their coldest June night in 37 years." more ...
http://www.weatherzone.com.au/news/cold-weather-smashes-records/12100
El Castor
wrote:
>On 6/01/10 6:15, in article 2v68k5d202gmg5jp1...@4ax.com, "El
Too Americo-Centric.
Earl Evleth
Castor" <No_...@Here.Com> wrote:
> Too Americo-Centric.
Well, if you are talking about yourself, you are one of the
adherents of American Exceptionalism, sort of God's chosen
people. Still, everybody agrees that American science is the
best, the world's top Universities are in the USA. The
funding structure is there to support great science. A number of
top teams studied polar ice formation, for instance.
Europeans can and do excel in some particular areas.
You see this in medical research for example. You particularly
see it in Astronomy. In the areas of high energy physics,
the important work will be done in Europe. Cern is out to
bust up protons and that effort in multi-national
(you can be certain that the language of communication
there is in English). So nobody can attribute Cern
to the Americans, but to the Europeans with key help
from the American group. Hyoernationalism plays no role
there.`
My guess is that 80+% of the important climate research is
done by American groups. So my data of preference is from
them.
I notice today that the data for last year's artic sea ice
has changed.
/data/seaice_index/images/daily_images/N_timeseries.png
The sudden dip that appeared in last years
chart (2006-2007) in the first two weeks of January was not
there a few days ago. So "revisionism" is going on. As a
scientist this does not bother me, rather reassuring.
Errors or new data can do this. It means that they are
on their toes.
Jerry Okamura
quesiton of will we actually do what is necessary to guarantee the event
will not happen.
"Earl Evleth" <evl...@wanadoo.fr> wrote in message
news:C7693B04.193715%evl...@wanadoo.fr...