Australia: Land Surface Warmed By 1.5C Since 1910, Major Cities Experienced Maximum Temperatures

(Photo : Getty Images/Brook Mitchell)

Experts said that Australia's land surface has warmed by 1.5C since 1910, and due to this phenomenon, major cities of the continent experienced maximum temperature.

Warmest Year On Record

The Australian Government's Bureau of Meteorology said that 2023 was Australia's equal eighth-warmest year on record with the national mean temperature 0.98 °C warmer than the 1961-1990 average.

Both the mean annual maximum and minimum temperatures were above average for all States as well as the Northern Territory.

Weather experts said that winter was Australia's warmest on record, with the national mean temperature 1.53 °C above the 1961-1990 average. Further, there was widespread warmth throughout the second half of the year.

On the other hand, the mean national temperature for June, July, August, September, November and December were among the ten warmest on record. Between October to December, some parts of northern and central Australia were affected by frequent low-to-severe intensity heatwave conditions.

Nationally-averaged rainfall was recorded at 1.6% above the 1961-1990 average at 473.70 mm.

The rainfall was above the 1961-1990 average for much of northern Australia, but below the 1961-1990 average for Tasmania, much of the south-eastern quarter of Queensland, parts of northern New South Wales, western and southern Western Australia, and parts of southern Victoria, eastern and south-western South Australia.

In the first quarter, Australia had experienced multiple major flood events, mostly across inland and northern regions.

The August to October period was Australia's driest three month period on record since 1900. Due to this, surface water storages declined, including those in the Murray-Darling Basin.

However, Australia's total surface water storage volume remained high at the end of the year (at 74.1% of its accessible capacity).

Major global-scale climate influences on Australian climate in 2023 were La Niña at the start of the year, an El Niño and a strong positive Indian Ocean Dipole that was established in early spring, and a positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode towards the end of the year.

Globally, it was the warmest year on record, with record warm oceans since April and record low Antarctic sea ice extent for much of the year.

Dr Simon Grainger, a senior climatologist at the bureau, noted that the warming of Australia's land surface had moved from 1.48C to the new 1.5C mark after another year of data was added.

He explained that this warming in Australia has been consistent with a global climate that is warming with 2023 being the warmest year on record globally.

Experts said that global heating is being caused mainly by the burning of fossil fuels and land clearing that has increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by about 50% since the 18th century.

Effects On Capital Cities

Meanwhile, the 2023 annual mean maximum temperatures for all capital cities, except Melbourne and Adelaide, were 0 to 1 °C above their average, when compared with observations in recent decades.

This weather condition had placed them all within their 10 warmest years on records, and their warmest since 2019, with temperature observations starting in the 19th century at all capital cities except Canberra and Darwin.

Sydney had its equal-second-warmest annual mean maximum temperature on record and Hobart its third-warmest.

The 2023 annual mean minimum temperatures were within 0.5 °C of their average, compared to recent decades, for all capital cities. The annual mean minimum temperature for Hobart was the equal-second-warmest on record.

Rainfall was below average in 2023, compared to recent decades, for Sydney, Brisbane, Hobart, Perth and Darwin.

On the other hand, Perth and Hobart both had their ninth-driest year on record. Annual rainfall was close to average for Melbourne and wetter than average for Canberra and Adelaide.