24/08/2020

(AU) Queensland Locations Break August Temperature Records, Earlier Wet Season On The Cards

ABC News - Sharnie Kim | Kier Shorey

Cooktown had its warmest August day in 146 years. (ABC Far North: Charlie McKillop)

Parts of Queensland have broken August temperature records and much of the state is in for a warmer and wetter spring than average, but the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) says it is too early to tell if it will be a scorching summer.

Mareeba and Cooktown in Far North Queensland and Yeppoon in Central Queensland had their hottest August day in decades this week.

Meteorologist Felim Hanniffy said it was due to a ridge of high pressure along the east coast, and northerly winds preceding a trough approaching from the west.

"Mareeba hit 34 degrees, which is actually the warmest August day in over 68 years," he said.
"Cooktown, the airport site only goes back 20 years but when you take in a couple of sites, 34.6 was actually their hottest August temperature for over 146 years."
Cooktown’s weather records only date back 146 years to 1874.

The temperatures for the two sites were about eight degrees Celsius above average for the time of year.

The mercury hit 30.7C in Yeppoon on Wednesday, making it the hottest August day since 2000, when it reached 30.1C.

No more records were expected to fall in the coming days, but conditions were expected to remain warmer than average, with elevated fire danger across most of the state.

 The chance of above median maximum temperature for September to November 2020.(Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)

'Not good news'

Forecaster Kimba Wong said the record temperatures aligned with global warming trends.

"The Bureau and CSIRO's State of the Climate report says Australia can expect to see more extremely hot days in the future as our climate continues to warm," she said.

"So I guess it's something we should maybe expect to happen more and more often, which is not particularly good news."

Bureau of Meteorology's guide to El Nino and La Nina

She said North Queensland could expect a warmer than average spring.

"Across the far north of Queensland there is an 80 per cent or higher chance of exceeding the median maximum temperature," Ms Wong said.

"For October to December it's a similar story — maybe slightly less of a signal there, but still above a 70 per cent chance of exceeding the median maximum temperature across most of the tropical north."

Eastern and central Australia were forecast to have more rainfall than average between September and November.

Chance of earlier, rainier wet season

This week the BOM declared a La Nina alert, which is typically associated with more rainfall, heightened risk of cyclones and cooler daytime temperatures.

It said the odds of a La Nina in the coming months had increased to a 70 per cent chance — about three times more likely than normal, in other words.

But Ms Wong said how the weather played out would depend on other climate drivers.

"The La Nina generally tends to be an earlier onset of the wet season, a wetter wet season, and potentially more cyclones than you would normally get," she said.

"The north still looks to be quite a high chance of above average maximum temperatures coming into summer.

"I'm not too sure what happens beyond then, but it seems to be in line with longer-term projections of continuing to warm."

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Greenland’s Ice Sheet Melted At A Rate Equivalent To ‘Six Olympic-Sized Swimming Pools Every Second’ Last Year

BBC Science Focus - 

Researchers detected unusually low melt in 2017 and 2018, followed by record-high melt in 2019.

The annual ice mass loss from Greenland in 2019 broke the previous record melt in 2012 by 15 per cent, a new study suggests.

But melting in the two-year period of 2017 and 2018 was reduced compared to any other two-year period between 2003 and 2019.

The Greenland ice sheet is one of the largest contributors to sea level rise, and is associated with about 0.76mm per year, out of the total of about 3.5mm per year rise in global mean sea level from 2005 to 2017, researchers say.

Using the satellite mission Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) and its follow-on mission Grace-FO, experts have been able to quantify ice mass loss by tracking changes in gravity.

Ingo Sasgen from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research and colleagues analysed data from the two satellite missions from 2003 to 2019.

They detected unusually low melt in 2017 and 2018, followed by record-high melt in 2019 of approximately 532 gigatonnes.

In 2012 the melt was around 464 gigatonnes, researchers say.

Using simulations with a regional climate model, the authors suggest the low melt in 2017–2018 could have been due to cold summers in western Greenland and high snowfall in the East.
Writing in a paper published in Communications Earth & Environment, the authors say: “The time series of Grace/Grace-FO GrIS mass anomalies documents an abrupt transition from a reduced rate of mass loss in 2017–2018 (58 per cent lower than 2003–2018 average) to a strongly enhanced rate of mass loss in 2019 (July mass loss rate 51 per cent above 2003–2016 average).

“A similar but inverse transition occurred between the record melt year of 2012 and the near-balance year of 2013.”

They add that the data reveals that the satellites show the annual balance of melt in 2019 exceeded the previous record loss measured by Grace in 2012.

The researchers say “2019 exhibited the largest mass loss on record”, following a trajectory of increasing ice loss since the late 1990s.
The research further confirms that we are in a dire state of ice loss in Greenland. This ice loss translates directly to rising seas around the world
Dr Twila Moon, research scientist
In an accompanying News and Views article in Nature Climate Change, Yara Mohajerani, from the department of earth system science at University of California Irvine, said: “It is crucial to understand and closely monitor the changes in mass balance of the Greenland Ice Sheet.

“Sasgen and colleagues take an important step in that direction.”

Professor Ed Hawkins, climate research scientist at the University of Reading, said: “To put this 2019 Greenland melt rate into context, 532 gigatonnes in one year is equivalent to around six Olympic-sized swimming pools every single second of the year.”

Dr Twila Moon, a research scientist at the University of Colorado at Boulder, said: “It is devastating that 2019 was another record year of ice loss.

“In 2012, it had been about 150 years since the ice sheet had experienced similar melt extent, and then a further 600-plus years back to find another similar event.

“We have now had record-breaking ice loss twice in less than 10 years, and the ice sheet has lost ice every year for the past 20.

“The research further confirms that we are in a dire state of ice loss in Greenland. This ice loss translates directly to rising seas around the world.”

Q&A: Could we live on Antarctica and Greenland if all the ice melted?

If both ice sheets melted, the global sea level would rise by about 68m. This would put most of Europe underwater, along with large parts of Asia, Canada and South America. Greenland and Antarctica are currently both pushed downwards by the weight of the ice on top.

Once it melted, the land would eventually spring back, but this would take tens of thousands of years. In the meantime, Antarctica would resemble a mountainous archipelago like Australasia, and Greenland would be a central bowl below sea level, defended by a ring of mountains. With a warmer climate, there would definitely be some room for human settlement, but Antarctica is geologically very similar to the Andes so it’s never going to be prime real estate.

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(AU) Denmark Is The Small WA Town That's Proven You Can Dream Big When It Comes To Renewable Energy

ABC News - Tom Edwards

The Denmark wind farm serves as a model for community-owned renewable energy projects in Australia, but so far there is only one other in Hepburn, Victoria. (Supplied: Simon Neville)



A small town on the south coast of Western Australia has proven that it's possible to dream big when it comes to renewable energy.

Denmark — located roughly 400km from Perth and with a population of fewer than 3,000 residents — is home to one of only two community-owned wind farms in Australia.

The two 50m-high turbines that stand proudly on a headland overlooking the Southern Ocean supply a little over half of the town's domestic energy requirements.

"Denmark's always been a 'green' town, and it's ideally situated on a very high energy coastline," said Craig Chapelle, one of the wind farm directors.

"We went to the community and asked, 'Do you think we should produce our own energy?' and the consensus was 'yes'.
"The only question was what form it should take and — if you know Denmark — you'll know sun isn't our strong suit but wind, we've got plenty of that."
A slow start

The project was given the green light in 2003 and was on course to become Australia's first community-owned wind farm, had it not been for what Mr Chappelle describes as "bureaucratic stonewalling".

By the time the turbines were built and began operating seven years ago, another community wind farm in Hepburn, Victoria, had beaten them to the chase.

Craig Chappelle is one of the directors of the Denmark Community Wind Farm, which produce just over half of the town's domestic energy requirements. (ABC Great Southern: Tom Edwards)



Mr Chappelle said the Denmark wind farm paid a dividend back to its 116 shareholders in its the first year and had done every year since. "The investors are getting a very good rate of return on their investment, and the project has a life expectancy of around 20 to 21 years," he said.

"We will reach break-even point in another two to three years, and it'll all be cream after that."

Expansion in the pipeline

The Environment Protection Agency has given the go-ahead for two more turbines, but it's unclear when that will happen.

Mr Chapelle said the project served as a model for other community-owned wind farms in Australia.

"The political climate for renewables has not been favourable for some years, and it's not looking super terrific in the near future either," he said.

"The writing has been on the wall for some time that renewables are the way of the future."

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