Has the Australian record maximum temperatures been broken since 1924.

[Gavin O'Brien]

Hi Blair,

A blogger has claimed that Australia's record highest temperature has not been broken since 1924. I am certain that he is incorrect.

Could you confirm my suspicion please.

Thanks 

Gavin.

[Clyve Herbert]

Hi all…..the record stands at two locations..50.7c at Oodnattata 3rd Jan 1960….and an equal record of 50.7c at Onslow on 13th Jan 2022….not aware of any other records above that….The Cloncurry record was disallowed due to poor exposure of the thermometer….

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[Gavin O'Brien]

Thanks Don,

He is a climate skeptic.

Now I can correct him with authority.

Gavin 

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[Blair Trewin]

OFFICIAL

Clyve's summed it up. I'm not sure where the 1924 reference comes from – there weren't any notable individual extremes in 1924. There was, however, a notable extreme of persistent heat, Marble Bar's 160-day run above 100F (which resulted from the near-total failure of the 1923-24 Pilbara wet season; 1924 also has Australia's only instance of a site having a rainless calendar year).

 

One thing that is true is that in central Australia extremes have warmed more slowly than average temperatures (the reverse is true in much of the inland east), and it's interesting that the NSW, SA and Queensland records are all more than 50 years old. (So is the NT's, but in their case the station where the record was set closed in 1980 and there is no comparably hot station in the current network).

 

Blair

 

OFFICIAL

[Bussy R]

Hi Blair.

 

That's interesting about the inland not rising like the rest. Is there a reason for that? I would of said it would be the hotter of all places.

 

Get the Gumboots out tonight for us in Rutherglen by the looks. Everything is still water logged and water still lying in paddocks etc from last time.

 

Regards Bussy

 

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[Blair Trewin]

OFFICIAL

It still is, but extremes aren't warming as quickly as they are further south and east. I'd speculate that feedbacks from land surface changes (e.g. vegetation) may have a bit to do with this (a lot of central Australia has been wet in recent years and so become more vegetated), but that hasn't been assessed in any detail to my knowledge.

 

Blair

 

OFFICIAL

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[Ken Kato]

I wonder if some other possibilities include dry soil feedbacks being more pronounced during hot dry conditions in areas that are otherwise usually not as arid as desert areas, the greater variability in atmospheric circulation extremes in other areas, or desert areas already being extremely hot in summer so even hotter temps are harder to achieve because of the physical constraints in the atmosphere.

There is also this:

https://academic.oup.com/oocc/article/5/1/kgaf015/8112840

" There is a physical reason why record maximum temperatures in desert regions are increasing with a slower pace than in other climate regions. The radiative forcing of the increased atmospheric greenhouse gas concentration is in the order of a few W m−2 [33]. A change of the surface temperature of e. g. 200°F ∼ 93.3°C, which has been observed 2001 in DV [34], by just one °F = 0.6°C, however, increases the blackbody emittance by a little more than 6 W m−2. The minimum temperature is generally seen as more sensitive on the increased greenhouse gas concentrations, hence an investigation of the minimum temperature at DV, which might have set a world record value recently seems to be promising [35].  "

Ken.

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[Blair Trewin]

OFFICIAL

Dry soil feedbacks certainly seem to be a factor in Europe, where extremes are increasing substantially faster than means, e.g. in some parts of the UK the hottest day of the year has warmed by up to 5C over the last 50 years.

 

Blair

 

OFFICIAL

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