10/09/2015

Australia's Climate Change

Fairfax

As Fairfax reported, new research by the ARC Centre of Climate System Science shows how days of heat extreme heat since 2000 now outnumber cold ones by a ratio of 12 to one.
Taking the past 15 years as a single period, almost all of the country has had above-average to highest-on-record temperatures compared with any other 15-year stretch, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.



The rainfall over the 2000-14 period helps to explain why much of the Northern Territory missed out on the warmer temperatures.
As shown below, the middle third of Australia - where relatively few people live - has been wetter than most other rolling 15-year periods.



The extra moisture means more evaporative cooling, and hence the milder temperatures over parts of the interior, one climatologist said.
Perhaps of more impact has been the record-low rainfall along the western edge of the country, which is also showing up in a sharp drop in water run-off into reservoirs in that region.
Similarly of note is the relatively dry period for most of Victoria and Tasmania. It's a trend that continues to play out in 2015, with parts of western Victoria experiencing their driest 12 months on record.

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