A RECORD breaking year of scorching heat and driving rain on Australia's east coast meant that climate-wise, many of us have "shifted a few hundred kilometres north," a weather expert has said. Australia's average national mean temperature rose 0.87C above average to make 2016 the fourth-warmest year on record, according the Bureau of Meteorology's Annual Climate Statement, released on Thursday.
But the residents of Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin and Hobart sweltered through their hottest year ever.
Bureau of Meteorology: Annual Climate Statement 2016
The report comes as a heatwave punishing south eastern Australia shows no sign of ending.
Melbourne and Sydney will have highs in the mid-thirties in the coming days but it's South Australians really in the firing line with a string of 39C days heading into the weekend.
Blair Trewin, a senior climatologist at the weather bureau, told news.com.au the El Niño weather system and climate change combined to send the mercury soaring.
"Australia's climate in 2016 was certainly consistent with long term trends over the last century which has seen Australia warm to the same degree as the rest of the world and all the indications are these warming trends will continue into the future."
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| Australia's east coast saw its highest temperatures ever in 2016. Source: Supplied |
Globally, 2016 is likely to be confirmed as the world's hottest year ever.
"It was a year of two halves with a relatively dry first four months and then from May onwards it became very wet with late autumn to early spring the wettest such period on record," said Mr Trewin.
"The contrast was especially clear in Tasmania with drought conditions earlier in year and then they had so much rain is was the sixth wettest year on record."
The higher than normal temperatures and increased rain along much of the east coast led to weather conditions more usual for cities much further north.
Sydney verged on the tropical with highs in the city more like coastal towns on the NSW mid-north coast, such as Nelson Bay and Forster.
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| Burgess Beach in Forster. Picture: Todd French Source: News Corp Australia |
"Along the east coast it was about a degree above normal and while that doesn't equate to the whole difference between Sydney and Brisbane, that level of warming is equivalent to shifting a few hundred kilometres north," said Mr Trewin.
Some of the notable climatic events in Australia last year were bushfires in Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia and a nationwide heatwave from late February to mid-March. That added up to the warmest Australian autumn on record.
Then in May, drought-breaking rains led to flooding in multiple states and the wettest ever late autumn to early spring period.
For the country as a whole, annual rainfall was 17 per cent above average.
Sea surface temperatures around Australia were the warmest on record in 2016, and were 0.77°C above average.
The warmest year on record for the east coast contrasted with South Australia which pretty much hit the average in terms of temperature.
Inland parts of south west Western Australia was one of the few places globally to come in cooler than usual.
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| Some of 2016's main climactic events in Australia. Source: Supplied |
However, this is exacerbated in El Niño years such as 2016. The El Nino weather system is caused by warmer sea temperatures in the Pacific sucking warm air over North America while leaving Australia hot and dry.
The opposing La Nina system usually brings wetter conditions across the continent.
"El Niño years tend to be warmer and La Nina tend to be cooler so if you look at handful of years in last 30 that have come in below average they are La Nina years."
Looking ahead, Mr Trewin said the lack of El Niño would mean 2017 would probably be a cooler year overall than 2016. But it certainly won't be cold.
La Nina never really got started depriving the east coast of the wet weather it brings.
"Our outlook for the early part of this year is relatively dry conditions in Eastern Australia, particularly NSW and southern Queensland, but conversely relatively wet conditions in much of Western Australia.
"It's unlikely 2017 will be as warm as 2016 globally but it's likely to be warmer than all years prior to 2015."
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| Sea surface temperatures around Australia were the warmest on record in 2016, and were 0.77°C above average. Source: Supplied |
- Very large fires in northwest Tasmania during January and February followed an extended dry period; about 123,800 ha burnt, mostly in remote areas
- There was significant flooding in Tasmania in January
- Significant fires at the start of the year near Wye River on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria, and in southwest Western Australia affecting Yarloop and Waroona
- An East Coast Low caused major coastal flooding and erosion in New South Wales in early June, with flooding also affecting Victoria and large areas of Tasmania
- Flooding occurred from June to September in western, central and southern Queensland following the State's second-wettest winter on record
- Periods of flooding in inland New South Wales and northern and western Victoria during September and October
- Supercell thunderstorms caused extensive damage across southeast Australia and parts of southeast Queensland during early November, with widespread reports of golf-ball sized hail
- Severe thunderstorms and a tornado outbreak caused widespread damage in South Australia during late September
- On 21 November, lightning storms associated with a strong and gusty change ignited grassfires across northern Victoria, caused damage across parts of Victoria, and along with a high pollen count, triggered thousands of incidents of thunderstorm asthma.
- A tropical low at the end of the year brought exceptional December rainfall to a number of regions between the northwest of Australia and the southeast, with some flooding and flash flooding resulting in the Kimberley, around Uluru in Central Australia, and around Adelaide, Melbourne and Hobart.
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