January 7, 2014

Australia experienced its hottest year on record in 2013, Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology reported at the beginning of the year. Temperatures were 2.16 degrees Fahrenheit (1.2 degrees Celsius) above the long-term average, the warmest year since record keeping was begun in Australia in 1910. The world’s driest continent also had its hottest day, hottest month, hottest winter’s day, and hottest summer in 2013. The record-warm winter culminated in a series of devastating fires in and around Sydney, Australia’s largest city. The hotter-than-normal temperatures, which began late in 2012, were so extreme that the Bureau of Meteorology was forced to change its official weather forecasting map to include two new colors—deep purple and pink—to show areas with temperatures above 122 °F (50 °C).

According to the bureau, all but one of the last 10 years have been warmer than average. “The Australian region warming is very similar to that seen at the global scale, and the past year emphasizes that the warming trend continues,” concluded the authors of the bureau’s annual report. “Most of the warming has occurred since around 1950, and that’s consistent with the global pattern,” bureau meteorologist Neil Plummer stated in an Australian Broadcasting Company interview. He noted that figures from the Australian bureau, and other bureaus around the word, provide a “body of evidence that we’re all seeing a warming over Australia and a warming world.”

Australia is the driest continent. Its vast interior, often called the outback, consists mainly of deserts, such as the Great Victoria Desert (above), and dry grasslands. (© Peter Mead, Tom Stack & Associates)

Concurrently, a study by Australian scientists published in the journal Nature found that increasing levels of carbon dioxide are reducing the thickness of clouds over the oceans, which will, in turn, reduce their cooling impact. The scientists predicted that this effect will cause global temperature to rise by at least 5.6 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) by the end of this century–shockingly higher than an earlier calculation of 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (1.5 degrees Celsius).

Additional World Book articles:

• Bushfires in Australia
• Australia 2009 (a Back in Time article)
• Global warming 2012 (a Back in Time article)
• The Great Meltdown (a special report)
• Meltdown: Climate Change in the Arctic (a special report)

October 23, 2013

The Australian state of New South Wales is braced for another day of devastating bushfires. The commissioner of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service has urged people not to travel in various parts of the state due to conditions that are set to be “as bad as it gets.” Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons warned that today’s weather forecast—temperature in the mid to high 80′s °F (30′s °C), humidity down to 10 percent, and winds of 50 to 60 miles (80 to 100 kilometers) per hour—is worse than previously thought, making it the most dangerous day yet in the bushfire emergency that began last week.

Dozens of bushfires are burning to the north, south, and west of Sydney, and the city is wreathed in smoke. “You can smell smoke inside buildings,” National Public Radio correspondent Stuart Cohen reported yesterday, noting that health authorities were expecting a surge in cases of people with respiratory problems. Since the start of the bushfires, more than 200 homes have been destroyed, and wildlife experts believe that thousands of koalas, opossums, reptiles, and other animals have been killed. However, only one life has been lost in the disaster.

A dangerous wildfire in the Blue Mountain region was started by the Australian army testing explosives in a military training exercise. (World Book map)

Firefighters from three states are battling the fires through backburning—that is, starting a fire that burns in the opposite direction to the line of the advancing wildfire. Australian fire officials say the threat to the Blue Mountain area west of Sydney “has been averted” for today, but warn the crisis is far from over. In total, 73 fires are burning across the state, 29 of them out of control. Meteorologists note that the severity of the bushfires is due to extremely dry conditions following Australia’s hottest September on record.

Additional World Book articles:

• Hakea
• Australia 2009 (a Back in Time article)

January 30, 2013

Winds approaching 62 miles (100 kilometers) per hour blasted Sydney, Australia’s largest city, yesterday, driving huge swells onto Bondi Beach and drenching the center of the city.

Days of high winds, torrential rains, and powerful ocean swells along Australia’s east coast have left at least four people dead and thousands more displaced in the states of New South Wales and Queensland. According to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, the storm–the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Oswald–has shattered records in various parts of New South Wales, triggering flooding along hundreds of miles from north of Brisbane south to Sydney. State officials estimate that at least 23,000 people remain cut off by floodwaters. Massive flooding north of Brisbane forced the evacuation by military helicopter of approximately 1,000 people from the town of Bundaberg, where rapidly moving floodwater threatened to carry away entire buildings. The highest rainfall was recorded some 500 miles (800 kilometers) north of Brisbane, where 53.5 inches (136 centimeters) fell over the three-day period ending on January 27.

Massive flooding along Australia's eastern coast has extended from north of Brisbane south to Sydney. (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.)

The latest floods in Australia have come on top of a barrage of bizarre and destructive weather. Just two weeks ago, New South Wales and Queensland were in the grip of a searing heat wave that triggered dozens of enormous wildfires.

January 18, 2013

Sydney, Australia, is experiencing its hottest day on record, with temperatures reaching 114.4 °F (45.8 °C). The previous recorded high in Sydney–113.5 °F (45.3 °C)–was in January 1939. The heat has caused extensive damage to Sydney’s urban railway lines, causing delays to much of the network. Prime Minister Julia Gillard has advised Australians to “take the appropriate precautions to stay safe and monitor information from local emergency services as they work to protect lives and property.”

A record high of 104 °F (40 °C) set on January 8 prompted the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to add two new colors to its temperature charts to extend their range to 129 °F (54 °C) from the previous cap of 122 °F (50 °C). David Jones, manager of climate monitoring prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology, declared last week that Australia was undergoing the “largest heat event in the country’s recorded history.”

According to public safety officials, four months of record-breaking temperatures combined with widespread drought conditions and high winds have created “catastrophic” fire conditions along the heavily populated eastern and southeastern coasts of the country. These areas include Australia’s three largest cities, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, as well as the capital, Canberra. A bushfire in Victoria state has left one man dead. He was found in his burnt-out vehicle outside the town of Seaton, which is 120 miles (200 kilometers) east of Melbourne. Firefighters continue to battle dozens of wildfires sparked by the intense heat in Victoria and New South Wales, and whole towns and sheep ranches are reportedly cut off  by fires and endangered. (A bushfire is an uncontrolled fire in bush areas, especially the Australian bush.) Very similar conditions on Feb. 7, 2009, came to be known as Black Saturday, during which wildfires in Victoria state left 173 people dead and caused $4.4 billion in damage.

Additional World Book articles:

• Celsius scale
• Fahrenheit scale
• Why Fires Need to Burn (a special report)
• Australia 2009 (a Back in Time article)

January 9, 2012

Temperatures in Australia topped 104 °F (40 °C) on January 8, and the mean national temperature climbed to the highest in history, breaking a record set just the day before, on January 7, reported the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. The new record prompted meteorologists at the bureau to take the extraordinary step of adding two new colors to its temperature charts to extend their range to 129 °F (54 °C) from the previous cap of 122 °F (50 °C).

“If you look at yesterday, at Australia as a whole, it was the hottest day in our records going back to 1911,” noted David Jones, manager of climate monitoring prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology. “From this national perspective, one might say this is the largest heat event in the country’s recorded history.”

According to public safety officials, four months of record-breaking temperatures combined over the past week with widespread drought conditions and high winds have created “catastrophic” fire conditions along the heavily populated eastern and southeastern coasts of the country. These areas include Australia’s three largest cities, Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane, as well as the capital, Canberra. Firefighters and emergency crews in the state of New South Wales are facing a highly dangerous situation battling 130 separate bushfires. (A bushfire is an uncontrolled fire in bush areas, especially the Australian bush.) Very similar conditions on Feb. 7, 2009, came to be known as Black Saturday, during which wildfires in Victoria state left 173 people dead and caused $4.4 billion in damage.

Additional World Book articles:

• Celsius scale
• Fahrenheit scale
• Why Fires Need to Burn (a special report)
• Australia 2009 (a Back in Time article)

March 9, 2012

Days of very heavy rain in Australia have caused flooding in parts of three states, New South Wales (NSW), Queensland, and Victoria. Thousands of residents have been forced to evacuate in NSW, where an enormous stretch–fully 75 percent–of Australia’s most populous state is under water. In what has been described as the state’s worst flooding in 150 years, scores of towns are inundated–from Forbes in central NSW to Griffith in the south and across the state line into northern Victoria. On March 7, the heaviest recorded rainfall in years triggered flash flooding across much of Sydney, Australia’s largest city.

World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.

La Nina weather conditions, which typically bring higher-than-normal rainfall, are affecting Australia’s southeast. “Australia is in the throes of two consecutive La Nina events,” stated Aaron Coutts-Smith, NSW climate manager for Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. “It is very rare to have such persistent, record-breaking rainfall over such large areas .  .  .”  Just weeks ago, in February, thousands were forced to evacuate in Queensland, where residents suffered through a third major flood in less than two years. From 2001 through 2009, the same area, Australia’s southeast, underwent the worst drought in the continent’s recorded history.

Additional World Book articles

• Australia 2006 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2007 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2008 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2009 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2010 (Back in Time article)
• Australia 2011 (Back in Time article)