Bushfire risks reached record high levels for Australia at the end of 2019, with December heat way above any previous readings for that month.Credit:Kate Geraghty
Peter Hannam, Sydney Morning Herald, January 9, 2020
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Australia sweltered through its seven hottest days in December, melting many records including for the country’s highest fire danger and its warmest and driest year.
The Bureau of Meteorology said maximum and mean temperatures for 2019 were easily the warmest in data going back to 1910. Daytime temperatures were 2.09 degrees above the 1961-90 average, beating the previous high set in 2013 by 0.54 degrees. Annual mean temperatures were 1.52 degrees above the norm.
Globally, 2019 was also the second hottest year on record based on data going back to 1880. It will be the warmest for any year that did not have an El Nino event – a Pacific climate pattern that boosts temperatures – and means the past five years are all among the top five warmest.
Annual Climate Statement 2019: Bureau of Meteorology
2019 was Australia’s warmest year on record. Annual rainfall was also the lowest on record.
While short-term climate drivers, particularly in the Indian Ocean, contributed to Australia’s hot year, the background warming – caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions – is clear.
“We’ve seen clear trends in maximum, minimum and average temperatures across Australia,” said Karl Braganza, head of the bureau’s climate monitoring, adding the country had warmed about 1.4 degrees since 1910, most of it since 1950.
“We’ve seen quite clear trends in reducing rainfall across south-west WA and parts of the south-east,” he said.
Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane and Hobart notched their warmest year on record for daytime temperatures, while Perth was equal-warmest and Darwin the second-warmest. Exposure to cool westerlies kept a lid on the mercury for Melbourne, but it too had above-average maximums.
NSW broke its annual record for daytime temperatures for a third year in a row, while Victoria had its fourth-warmest. For South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, 2019 also marked their hottest year for maximums.
Drought intensifies
Rainfall was generally dismal, averaging just 277.63 millimetres across Australia in 2019. That tally was more than one-10th below the previous record low set in 1902.
“Australia had below-average rainfall in every month – it’s the first time that’s happened,” Dr Braganza said.