More than 206 heat records broken in just 90 days
More than 206 climate records were broken across Australia in just 90 days as temperatures soared and rainfall declined, according to a report by the Climate Council of Australia.
This year saw record-high summer temperatures, record-low rainfall, and record high temperatures across states and territories, the report said.
Heatwaves, defined as unusually high temperatures lasting for at least three days in a row, are occurring more frequently in Australia.
The number of heatwave days each year has increased in Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Hobart since 1950. The peak temperature during heatwave days in Adelaide is on average 4.3C higher in 1981-2011 than in 1950-1980.
The Murray-Darling Basin saw its driest period on record yet from January 2017 to October 2019. Due to the current prolonged drought across eastern Australia, national summer crop production is also forecast to fall by 20 per cent to 2.1 million tonnes in 2019/20.
Major regional centres in New South Wales’ central west are also set to face worsening heatwaves, droughts and bushfires.
“Major regional centres such as Orange and Dubbo are currently facing severe water shortages, and this summer is shaping up as a terrible trifecta of heatwaves, droughts and bushfires with no reprieve for the Central West,” Climate Councillor and report author Professor Will Steffen said.
“We have seen bushfires starting in winter, a heatwave traversing the country in spring, and a prolonged drought. Climate change is influencing all of these things.”
By the end of the century, major capital cities such as Sydney and Melbourne are expected to see 50C summer days as the norm.
“We have seen temperature records smashed, bushfires in winter and a prolonged drought," said Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie.
"Climate change is influencing all of these things. It is only the beginning of summer, which means the biggest danger period may yet be to come.”
Orange farmer Robert Lee told SBS that drastic changes in policy are needed. “We have never seen a drought as bad as this. In 2018, we sold one-third of our cows, and again this year we sold another third. Once we are through the next calving, we will get out altogether and run just sheep,” he said.
Lee called on the government to take action to promote renewable energy industry to help relieve the impacts of climate extremes in regional Australia.
“Australia needs to take serious, credible action on climate change. Renewable energy is an investment in the future, an opportunity that could create a lot of industries in regional areas like the Central West.
“I get very frustrated when I think about all the time we have wasted. Now it is time to act, to ensure Australians have a safe climate and a modern economy, now and into the future.”
The report comes as the World Meteorological Organization marked the last decade as one of “exceptional” heat around the world and 2019 as the second or third-hottest year in history.
“This [temperature rise] does not simply mean slightly warmer summers, it means an increased frequency of extreme weather globally – droughts, heatwaves, flooding and changing patterns in the frequency and intensity of tropical cyclones,” Grant Allen, professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Manchester told The Guardian.
“These impacts are real and happening now and place huge pressures on communities and countries – put simply, these impacts make for a more unstable world.”