Australia saw its highest mean, maximum and minimum temperatures on record in December 2018, as heatwaves affected the north of Australia at the start of the month, spreading to the west and south during the second half of December. Now a 125-year temperature record of 40C could be broken on Thursday in Melbourne.
Melbourne will experience two days of early summer as it begins to heat up on Wednesday.
The region will see one of its hottest November days ever with temperatures forecast to reach 39C on Thursday - with the potential of breaking the 125-year record of 40C.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Richard Carlyon said: "For Melbourne, the last time it reached 39 degrees was in 2012 and the all time record for November is just over 40.
"Normally at this time of the year we start to see some summery weather with temperatures reaching the mid 30 degrees, but it is unusual to see them into the high 30s."
The scorching temperatures saw a rise in hospital admissions, mass deaths of wild horses, bats and fish and blackouts.
Read More: Sydney air quality: Smoke CHOKES Australia as more than 50 treated
Every state and territory across the country felt the impact, but South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales got faced the worst of the extreme temperatures.
Now a map from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecasts more extreme heat and less rainfall this summer.
Forecaster Livio Remano said he had never seen such extreme conditions in the 20 years he has worked with the Bureau of Meteorology.
Mr Remano compared the long-term seasonal outlook to a bad chest X-ray.
He said: “It’s horrible, it’s a horrible map to look at.
“I have never seen this before in my life … the entire country of Australia is covered in deep red.”
In Victoria, Emergency Services Minister Lisa Neville said firefighters were battling “some of the worst conditions that you’d expect to see often in February or March”.
She said: “It is incredibly dry, it will continue to get drier as the months go on over this summer, so the conditions we see today are likely conditions that we’ll confront over this summer.”
Scientist, residents and former fire chiefs have linked the current bushfire crisis and the forecast heat to climate change.
However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said there is no evidence to prove cutting Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions would decrease the risk of bushfires.
He said: “The suggestion in any way shape or form that Australia - accounting for 1.3 per cent of the world’s emissions … (is) impacting directly on specific fire events, whether it is here or anywhere else in the world, that doesn’t bear up to credible scientific evidence.”
In Australia, summer begins in December and ends in February, as it is located in the Southern Hemisphere.
Currently, it is spring, and hot weather and lack of rain have caused fires to spread across the country,
Concerns are growing for Australia's native koalas, as large swathes of habitat have been decimated, and hundreds of animals killed.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMieWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmV4cHJlc3MuY28udWsvbmV3cy93b3JsZC8xMjA5NTE1L2F1c3RyYWxpYS1ib20td2VhdGhlci1tYXAtY2hhcnQtaGVhdHdhdmUtd2FybmluZy1zdW1tZXItUUxELU5TVy1maXJlcy1sYXRlc3TSAX1odHRwczovL3d3dy5leHByZXNzLmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvd29ybGQvMTIwOTUxNS9hdXN0cmFsaWEtYm9tLXdlYXRoZXItbWFwLWNoYXJ0LWhlYXR3YXZlLXdhcm5pbmctc3VtbWVyLVFMRC1OU1ctZmlyZXMtbGF0ZXN0L2FtcA?oc=5
2019-11-27 09:45:00Z
CBMieWh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmV4cHJlc3MuY28udWsvbmV3cy93b3JsZC8xMjA5NTE1L2F1c3RyYWxpYS1ib20td2VhdGhlci1tYXAtY2hhcnQtaGVhdHdhdmUtd2FybmluZy1zdW1tZXItUUxELU5TVy1maXJlcy1sYXRlc3TSAX1odHRwczovL3d3dy5leHByZXNzLmNvLnVrL25ld3Mvd29ybGQvMTIwOTUxNS9hdXN0cmFsaWEtYm9tLXdlYXRoZXItbWFwLWNoYXJ0LWhlYXR3YXZlLXdhcm5pbmctc3VtbWVyLVFMRC1OU1ctZmlyZXMtbGF0ZXN0L2FtcA
