Australia’s ‘angry summer’ broke 205 records this year

Australia experiences summer between December and February, and this year it endured record-smashing extreme weather events due to climate change, scientists said yesterday. Eastern Australia saw extremely hot days and intense heatwaves with a huge number of bush fires, while central and western Australia saw torrents of rain that triggered flooding, according to the Climate Council, an independent research organisation.“Climate change — driven largely by the burning of coal, oil and gas — is cranking up the intensity of extreme weather events,” the council said in the report released yesterday.Climate scientist Will Steffen, one of the authors of the report, said what Australia experienced was “unprecedented” and the rate at which new records were being set was “alarming.”More than 205 records were broken over the 90 days of “angry summer,” the report said. Sydney, Australia’s largest city, had its hottest summer on record with a mean temperature 2.8 degrees above average, the report said.On February 11, the average temperature across New South Wales was 44C, the hottest day on record for the state, while the rural town of Moree had 54 consecutive days with temperatures reaching 35C or higher, another record for the state.“In Canberra, where I am from, there were 23 days above 30C and 18 of those days were above 35 within a month. It’s record-breaking and unexpected,” Steffen told in an interview.Adelaide saw the hottest Christmas Day in 70 years at 41.3C, the report said, while Perth recorded the highest summer rainfall at 192.8 mm. The data for the report came from government’s Bureau of Meterology.Bush fires, which are common in Australia during arid summers due to low humidity, wind and extreme heat, increased in frequency and severity “due to weather condition that is too conducive for it,” Steffen said.On one February day, fire officials were battling more than 100 bush fires in New South Wales alone. Steffen said there is a steady increase in all extreme heat-related events in the last five years, but the numbers this year are drastic.He said according to a climate modelling study by the University of New South Wales, extreme weather conditions are 50 times more likely to have occurred due to climate change.The tests — which were done using the climate model technique for summertime heat with and without greenhouse and each repeated more than a thousand times — found that the current weather conditions would have been extremely improbable if it were not for climate change.Steffen said extreme heat and heatwaves will become more frequent and severe in Australia and it will increase the risks to agriculture, health, ecosystems, and critical infrastructures, like electricity.“Extreme weather will continue to intensify through this century if we continue to sit on our hands and fail to move rapidly to get fossil fuels out of our economy,” he said.The Australian energy system is “ageing, inefficient and polluting,” struggling to cope with heatwaves and extreme weather conditions, he said.During hot days this summer, the states of South Australia and New South Wales saw blackouts, while the government has been facing censure for failing to control the impending crisis.Australia is one of the world’s worst-offending greenhouse gas polluters per capita due to its heavy reliance on coal-fired power.“We have to get the emissions down. States are doing more than the federal government, which is influenced by a small group of sceptics who are blocking actions against climate change,” Steffen said.