Australia on track for hottest summer on record: Here’s what’s you can expect for your city
This year is ‘almost certainly’ the hottest year in 125,000 years, as the true toll of Australia’s extreme heat is revealed.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service found that the previous global heat record for October, set in 2019, was surpassed by 0.4 degrees, with the past five months being the warmest consecutive months on record globally.
“We can say with near certainty that 2023 will be the hottest year on record,” said Samantha Burgess, the agency’s deputy director.
The Bureau of Meteorology warned that ‘nearly all of Australia’ will suffer from ‘above average maximum temperatures’ this summer.
“Most of Australia is at least two and a half times more likely than normal to experience unusually high maximum and minimum temperatures,” the report said.
‘For unusually high maximum temperatures, the chances increase to more than four times more likely for southern and western Western Australia and parts of northern Northern Territory and Queensland.
‘Unusually high temperatures correspond to the warmest 20 percent of the November to January periods from 1981 to 2018.’
The Bureau of Meteorology has warned that “almost all of Australia” will suffocate from the intense heat this summer
Bushfires, expected to be worsened by extreme heat, have caused 299 Australian deaths in a decade
The extreme temperatures, combined with a large amount of greenery due to last year’s record-breaking rainfall, have already led to increased bushfire warnings across Australia.
“It will be very warm and hot across much of Queensland this week… if conditions persist, a severe heatwave could be announced for inland areas tomorrow,” BoM Bureau senior meteorologist Harry Clark explained.
This week alone, a heatwave is expected to warm large parts of Australia.
Southwest Queensland, northeast South Australia and northwest NSW are expected to experience low to severe heatwaves from Monday.
Isolated western parts of Cape York, inland Queensland, northern WA and the eastern Top End in NT will be affected from Tuesday and Wednesday.
The heat wave is expected to be widespread across large parts of the north of the country on Thursday.
Nine bushfire warnings are in force across Queensland, with residents told to prepare to leave on Mount Garner near Cairns as conditions escalate along Wyndham Creek Rd, according to Queensland Fire and Emergency Services.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare found that extreme heat was one of the biggest causes of hospital admissions in the past decade.
It was responsible for 7,104 hospital admissions with injuries, most of them in Queensland and Victoria, and 293 deaths.
New South Wales recorded the highest number of bushfire deaths with 91, followed by Queensland with 60 and WA with 42. The national total was 299.
‘There is evidence that over the past 30 years there has been an increase in the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, such as extreme heat, bushfires, extreme cold, rain and storm-related events, including heavy rainfall, floods and cyclones. said Australian Institute of Health and Welfare spokesperson Dr Heather Swanston.
‘We see this reflected in hospital admissions and deaths.’
A low to severe heatwave will hit northern Australia on Thursday (forecast above)
Emma Bacon, the founder of Sweltering Cities – an organization that helps hot communities campaign for cooler infrastructure, said the persistent warm weather is starting to impact the wellbeing of Australians.
‘The problem is the way we build our cities and houses. They are not suited to the current climate, let alone the increasingly warmer climate,” she told Nine Newspapers.
‘The coming summers will be the hottest of our lives, and it will continue to get worse. It’s hard to wrap our heads around the fact that the unprecedented heat we’ll feel is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before.
‘Hotter summers have lasting consequences for people. You have different people who are affected, you have people who are older, have disabilities or chronic conditions and are pregnant.
‘Millions of people will be affected at once.’
The findings come just weeks before Cop28, the annual United Nations climate change conference, where governments will discuss how to limit rising temperatures.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare has found that extreme heat is one of the biggest causes of hospital admissions in the past decade