Australia ended the winter with weather that felt much more like spring or summer, with the country recording its warmest winter temperature during a record-warm August.
What’s going on?
The temperature rose to 107 degrees in late August in Yampi Sound, on Australia’s northwest coast. It wasn’t just the daytime temperatures that broke records; the nighttime minimum temperatures also reached record highs. Sydney had a string of 15 consecutive nights with a minimum temperature above 50 degrees in August.
“It feels really nice where most of us live… and many of us have shed our Ugg boots and winter blankets, but that’s not normal for this time of year,” said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a professor at the Australian National University. per the Guardian. “We’ve seen weather systems like this before; they’re so common in the summer. It’s just the timing and the intensity that are rare. The extension of spring and summer will only be exacerbated by climate change.”
Every decade since 1950 has been warmer than the previous decade in Australia. “Warming is observed across Australia in all months, with both daytime and nighttime temperatures increasing,” a analysis of Australian climate trends. “The study says this shift is “accompanied by more extreme national average daily heat events across all months.”
Why is the record warmth of the Australian winter important?
The problem is that record high temperatures, like those in the Australian winter, are becoming more common in more seasons and in more places around the world. July was the warmest month on Earth ever recorded and the 14th consecutive month of record-high global temperatures. According to the National Centers for Environmental Information, August extended that streak to 15 consecutive months of record-high global temperatures. The world just saw its warmest august in the 175-year record.
What is being done about Australia’s warming?
Australia, like the rest of the world, is overheating. Technological advances offer hope that we can cool our planet. A recent major breakthrough in sustainable energy-producing green hydrogen could revolutionize renewable energy production. Scientists in Oxford have announced a remarkable new approach that uses an ultra-thin material to generate solar power without traditional panels. They say the material offers 27 percent energy efficiency in converting sunlight into energy. A breakthrough in longer-range battery technology that converts waste energy into power could revolutionize electricity generation.
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Using your voice as an advocate to fight for the future of our planet is one way to make a difference by drawing attention to the problems our warming world is causing. Understanding the problem by researching critical climate issues and using that knowledge in choosing climate-friendly candidates can have a significant impact.
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