02/03/2022

(AU ABC) WA Weather Delivers Perth Its Hottest Summer On Record As Scientists Predict Trend To Continue

ABC NewsTyne Logan

Perth recorded a string of six consecutive days above 40 degrees Celsius as temperature records kept tumbling. (ABC News: Jon Sambell)

Key Points

  • There were 13 days of 40C temperatures in Perth over summer
  • There was also a record number of days over 35C
  • Several regional towns are also set to break their summer heat records
It's been a summer for the history books in Western Australia with Perth sweltering through its hottest on record, and several regional towns all but guaranteed to follow suit.

While numbers will not be technically official until Tuesday, Bureau of Meteorology figures show Perth's average maximum temperature is currently 33.2 degrees Celsius — well above the previous record of 32.3 set in 2012/13.

It means the city is guaranteed to break the record even without the final day's temperature, forecast to be 36C.

Several regional towns through the Central West, Wheatbelt, Great Southern and South West are also likely to break summer records.

The numbers speak for themselves

When you look at individual days, it is easy to see why.

Perth set a summer record of 13 days above 40C, six of which were consecutive.

Perth also experienced a record number of days above 35C, and in January Onslow equalled Australia's hottest ever temperature, reaching 50.7C.

BOM forecaster Jessica Lingard says there's been an unusual number of heat records broken this summer. (ABC: Greg Pollock)
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jessica Lingard said it had been hard to keep up with the number of records.       

"So many places have had their hottest Christmas, their hottest December, their hottest January," Ms Lingard said. 
"There has just been an awful lot of records broken this season and it's quite unusual."
What's been driving the heat?

In terms of weather systems, Ms Lingard said it was the usual heat-bearing systems that fuelled the hot weather.

Perth has endured its hottest summer on record. (ABC News: Hugh Sando)

That includes high pressure systems and west coast troughs, which drive in strong and warm easterly winds from the desert and often delay or stop the sea breeze.

But she said this year the systems were sticking around for much longer than normal, allowing the heat to build.

"They usually transition eastwards fairly rapidly, forming a west coast trough and then a couple of days later it moves inland," she said.

"But we've been seeing these west coast troughs really hanging around for a long time.

"We're talking four to seven days, so that really allows all that warm air from inland parts to penetrate right into coastal areas."

Challenging fire season

The conditions have had devastating consequences, even for regions that only experienced short bursts of heat.

In early February, four out-of-control bushfires were burning at the same time — ultimately destroying homes in Denmark, Bridgetown and Corrigin.

In February 2021 an out-out-control bushfire doubled in size overnight in Denmark, destroying three houses. (Supplied: Emily Harper)
A week later it happened again, but this time with lightning added to the mix.

One home in Jerramungup was lost along with two in Hopetoun.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services Commissioner Daren Klemm said conditions had been particularly severe this year.

"We've had some really challenging, complex fires in particularly difficult fire weather," he said.

Fingerprint of climate change

Unfortunately, climate science indicates this is just the start.

Rainfall has declined significantly in the last 50 years over WA's south-west.

While it can be difficult for scientists to directly attribute extreme weather events to climate change, climate scientist Andrew King said Perth's summer clearly bore the fingerprint of global warming.

"Given the background trends and previous work looking at heatwaves and their links to climate change in different parts of Australia, and our understanding of how the climate system works, we can be quite confident that climate change has exacerbated the heat and Perth the summer," Dr King said.

He said there would still be cooler summers in future, but climate change had loaded the dice to make hot years more common.
"Because we've got such a clear trend in temperatures across the whole of Australia, including in Western Australia, it's just quite easy to break records these days," he said.
"I guess an analogy to that is you can think of like COVID cases.

"If you've got an outbreak occurring, you can have record numbers of cases each day, day after day, when you've got a strong trend in case numbers. 

"In a way, temperature trends are a bit like that, when you've got a very clear trend, it's very easy to break records so you break them more frequently."

Dr Andrew King says there's very little doubt that WA's hot summer was influenced by climate change. (ABC Weather: Kate Doyle)

Dr King said heatwaves would only become more frequent and intense if greenhouse has emissions were not reduced.

"However, if we try and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and try and stick to the Paris Agreement, that would help a lot.

"We would see slightly worse heat waves than we do now, but not as bad as if we just keep emitting greenhouse gases."

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