Australian Temperature Record Broken Twice In One Night

Fairfax - Rachel Clun

The record for the highest overnight minimum temperature has been broken twice in one night.
Weather stations at Noona, west of Dubbo, and Borrona Downs, west of Bourke, recorded overnight minimum temperatures of 35.9 degrees and 35.6 degrees respectively.

The record for hottest overnight temperature was broken overnight. Credit: John Veage

The NSW stations both broke the record set by a remote South Australian station almost 40 years ago, Bureau of Meteorology forecaster David Wilke said on Friday.

"The previous record for highest minimum temperature is 35.5, set on the 24th of January, 1982, at Arkaroola in South Australia, and that was equalled in 2003 in a place called Wittenoon in Western Australia on the 21st of January," he said.
Mr Wilke said that, as well as breaking national records, a number of stations broke their own records for the hottest overnight temperatures, including Tibooburra Airport, Cobar Airport and Coonabarabran Airport.
Minimum overnight temperatures would be slightly cooler over the next couple of nights, with minimums expected to hit the low 20s on Saturday, Mr Wilke said.

Overnight temperatures are forecast to stay in the low 20s across most of Sydney, making it hard to sleep. Credit: Christopher Pearce

Thanks to a trough moving across the state, temperatures in Sydney on Saturday will drop to 29 degrees in the city and 33 degrees in Penrith - a change of 13 degrees from Friday's forecast high of 45 in the west, he said.

However, Mr Wilke said the trough was not bringing a strong change, so temperatures would climb again into next week.

"The main problem is we don’t see the humidity really clearing out significantly," he said.
"We’ll see this relief from the heat in the next couple of days, particularly for the south-east, but the heat will continue building next week."

Fire ban, severe fire warning issued

The heat, combined with strong north-easterly winds on Friday have prompted the bureau to issue a fire weather warning for parts of the state on Friday.

The Rural Fire Service has also issued total fire bans for 13 areas.
Severe fire danger was forecast for the Southern Ranges and Southern Slopes regions, and a very high fire danger for areas around Canberra and the Illawarra and Shoalhaven areas.

The total fire bans were in places including the Illawarra and Shoalhaven, the greater Hunter area, and areas around Canberra.

Links

• Roads melt as temperatures break records across NSW
• The world's 15 hottest sites on Tuesday were all in Australia
• Bureau of Meteorology calls run of prolonged heatwaves ‘unusual’ in length and intensity
• Australia heatwave: overnight minimum of 35.9C in Noona sets new record 
• NSW Heatwave
• 'Civilisation in crisis': Science tells us how to eat to save our planet
• 'One died in front of us': More dead fish surface in the Darling River

PM Morrison Says Australia Climate Target To Remain Unchanged, Despite Fiji's Criticism

SBS

The prime minister says Australia's emissions reduction targets will stay the same, despite criticism from Fiji about the need for a rapid shift to clean energy sources.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and assistant Minister for International Development and the Pacific Anne Ruston in Suva, Fiji. Source: AAP

Scott Morrison is sticking with Australia's climate change targets despite strong criticism from Fiji about the urgent need to move to clean energy.
The prime minister says Australia's emissions reduction targets will stay the same, but he did commit to spending money to help Pacific nations tackle the efforts of climate change.
Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama said Australia cannot put the interests of one industry ahead of the lives of Pacific islanders.

Scott Morrison with former rugby league player Petero Civoniceva and Executive Chair of Fiji National Rugby League Peni Musunanasi in Suva.

"We have sensible, achievable commitments that will continue to ensure that Australia has a prosperous economy, and Australians will have the choices that they want in the future," Mr Morrison said in response on Friday.
"While at the same time respecting the need to address the real impacts of climate change, both here in the Pacific and elsewhere around the world."
Mr Morrison said Australia's emissions reduction targets were discussed in a meeting with Mr Bainimarama on Thursday.
"We are already pursuing those policies in a way that I believe is consistent with what the prime minister is expecting of Australia," Mr Morrison said.


Fiji PM tells Scott Morrison 'Australian coal is killing the pacific'

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said the coalition government has no climate policy.
"It's a bit embarrassing that he had to go to Fiji to be told that he's doing nothing on climate change, when in fact millions of Australians could have told him that in Australia," Mr Shorten told reporters.
Mr Morrison also announced funding to support a Fijian team in the NSW rugby league super premiership, and a preseason NRL game in Fiji in 2021.
Mr Morrison will visit Black Rock on Friday, where Australia is funding an expansion of the military training centre.
The centre will be used to train militaries from around the Pacific islands.
The announcements are part of a "vuvale" partnership - from the Fijian word for family - that Mr Morrison and Mr Bainimarama agreed to on Thursday.
Mr Bainimarama said the relationship had been "rocky" after his 2006 military coup, but the return of free elections in 2014 had led to a thaw with Australia.

Links

• Climate Change Is 'No Laughing Matter', Fiji's PM Frank Bainimarama Tells Australia During Scott Morrison's Pacific Trip
• PM Morrison Says Australia Climate Target To Remain Unchanged, Despite Fiji's Criticism
• Fiji urges Australia not to put coal above Pacific nations battling climate change
• Fiji tells Australia to shift away from coal
• Pacific Nations Under Climate Threat Urge Australia To Abandon Coal Within 12 Years
• Australia Turns Back On Allies As It Refuses To Cut Emissions Above Paris Pledge
• Climate Change Must Be Dealt With Before It Unleashes Millions Of Global-Warming Refugees
• Pacific Nations Aren’t Cash-Hungry, Minister, They Just Want Action On Climate Change
• Dutton jokes about rising sea levels in Pacific
• Australia accused of trying to water down Pacific climate change declaration
• Kiribati president lashes Dutton for 'vulgar' joke about rising sea levels

Climate Change Is 'No Laughing Matter', Fiji's PM Frank Bainimarama Tells Australia During Scott Morrison's Pacific Trip

ABC - Stephen Dziedzic | Erin Handley

Frank Bainimarama said climate change could not be written off as a difference of opinion. (Reuters: Wolfgang Rattay, file photo)

Climate change is "no laughing matter" and poses an "enormous" threat to Fijians and Pacific Islanders, Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has warned Australia.
In a speech during his counterpart Scott Morrison's Pacific visit, Mr Bainimarama called on Australia to put the welfare of Pacific peoples before the interests of any single industry.
"Here in Fiji, climate change is no laughing matter," he said.
"From where we are sitting, we cannot imagine how the interests of any single industry can be placed above the welfare of Pacific peoples — vulnerable people in the world over."
It is the first time a political leader has publicly confronted Mr Morrison on the question of climate change during his Pacific tour.

Key points: In the same speech, Frank Bainimarama lavished praise on Mr Morrison for his "Pacific step-up" Scott Morrison has promised Australia will not neglect the Pacific Fiji and Australia have committed to a "family partnership" in a sign of warming ties

In 2015, then-immigration minister Peter Dutton quipped about the fate of the Pacific Islands in the face of climate change, prompting laughter from then-prime minister Tony Abbott.
"Time doesn't mean anything when you're about to be … you know, have water lapping at your door," Mr Dutton said.
Mr Morrison, then the social services minister, pointed out to both men that a microphone was above them.
In his speech on Thursday, Mr Bainimarama said Fiji and Australia should be "good neighbours" and highlighted the searing temperatures dominating Australian cities this week.
"Prime Minister, I urged your predecessor repeatedly to honour his commitment to clean energy future, the only future that guarantees the survival of your neighbours in the Pacific," he said.


Peter Dutton quips about Pacific leaders facing climate change during chat with Scott Morrison and Tony Abbott

Mr Morrison declared that Australia would make sure it did not neglect the Pacific. (ABC News: Jed Cooper, file photo)

Mr Morrison's predecessor, Malcolm Turnbull, abandoned the emissions reduction target in a bid to stave off a leadership challenge last year.A vocal proponent of climate change policy who led the UN's Climate Change Conference in 2017, Mr Bainimarama said the issue "cannot be written off as a difference of opinion".

"Consensus from the scientific community is clear, and existential threat posed to Pacific Island countries, a certainty."

Australia will not neglect the region: PM
But Mr Bainimarama also lavished praise on Mr Morrison for his so-called "Pacific step-up", and said he had "transformed" the Australia-Fiji relationship by visiting Suva.
"While it was a short flight to Suva, your presence has already taken our relationship a very long way indeed," he said.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, then the treasurer, used a lump of coal to make a point in Parliament in 2017. (ABC News: Nick Haggarty)

Mr Morrison's engagement with the Pacific set a "new precedent" and was "absolutely a step in the right direction", he added.

"When our nation and our people have been left devastated in the aftermath of ever-worsening cyclones, Australia has always proven to be a friend we can count on," Mr Bainimarama said.

No Australian prime minister has come to Fiji since 2006, and Mr Morrison's trip is aimed at shoring up Australia's influence in the nation, which has been courting Chinese investment.

---

Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map

Aid is an important resource for the Pacific Islands region, but public information is often lacking. The Lowy Institute Pacific Aid Map is designed to enhance aid effectiveness.

---

Fiji and Australia yesterday agreed to a host of new initiatives and committed to a "Vuvale Partnership" (or "family partnership") in a sign of warming ties.
Both countries have agreed to more regular ministerial meetings, while Australia has promised to send Border Force officials to Fiji to offer local guards training.
Australia has also pledged $84 million for a new partnership with Fiji's University of the South Pacific, and $17 million to provide 1,000 hours of Australian television content each year to Pacific broadcasters.
Mr Morrison declared that Australia would make sure it did not neglect the region.

"One of the risks of close relationships is sometimes they can be taken for granted, and there are periods in our past where that has been the case," he said.

"Not now. And not in the future if there's anything my government has to do with it."
Some Australian diplomats were anxious that the stoush over Islamic State extremist Neil Prakash would overshadow the visit.
Fijian officials were angered when Australia stripped Prakash of his citizenship, arguing he was instead entitled to Fijian citizenship through his father.
But Fiji insists Prakash and his family were never registered as citizens, and have made it clear Prakash would not be welcome.
When questioned, Mr Morrison said Mr Bainimarama had not raised the issue at all in Thursday's talks — indicating the two men had smoothed over the issue before sitting down in Suva.

Links

• PM Morrison Says Australia Climate Target To Remain Unchanged, Despite Fiji's Criticism
• Fiji urges Australia not to put coal above Pacific nations battling climate change
• Fiji tells Australia to shift away from coal
• Pacific Nations Under Climate Threat Urge Australia To Abandon Coal Within 12 Years
• Australia Turns Back On Allies As It Refuses To Cut Emissions Above Paris Pledge
• Climate Change Must Be Dealt With Before It Unleashes Millions Of Global-Warming Refugees
• Pacific Nations Aren’t Cash-Hungry, Minister, They Just Want Action On Climate Change
• Dutton jokes about rising sea levels in Pacific
• Australia accused of trying to water down Pacific climate change declaration
• Kiribati president lashes Dutton for 'vulgar' joke about rising sea levels