Australia was home to all 15 of the world's hottest temperatures on Tuesday, a feat it may well repeat on Wednesday and beyond as a huge swath of the nation bakes in 45-degree-plus heat. A slew of records have already fallen during the current heatwave and more are likely to be broken before a cool change breaks up the furnace later this week. Most of inland south-eastern Australia is expected to reach 45 degrees or warmer on Wednesday. Credit:Bureau of Meteorology According to the El Dorado Weather site, the warmest 15 places on the planet in the past 24 hours were all in Australia. These ranged from Tarcoola in inland South Australia, which reached 49.1 degrees, to Yulara in the Northern Territory at 46.1 degrees in 15th slot. The Bureau of Meteorology said the 49.1 degrees at Tarcoola was a record reading for that site.<doc-sep>Australia is so hot that temperature maps have gone purple Bureau of Meteorology, Australia Roads melting, fish dying and bats falling from trees – this is what global warming looks like. Many records have been smashed during Australia’s latest heatwave. Most notably, on 17 January Noona in New South Wales recorded Australia’s warmest ever night with temperatures remaining above 35.9°C. Canberra has also had four consecutive days of temperatures above 40°C for the first time. Healthy people can tolerate very high temperatures as long as humidity is low for sweating to cool us. But when temperatures remain high overnight and for several days in a row, it can be dangerous, especially for the young and elderly. Advertisement There’s little doubt that climate change has played a big part. Heatwaves in Australia have been getting hotter, longer and more frequent as the planet warms. Fortunately this heatwave has peaked already. Temperatures are forecast to fall over the coming days. During another heatwave in November, more than a third of the country’s flying foxes died, according to Justin Welbergen of Western Sydney University. The toll from the latest heatwave is not yet clear.<doc-sep>January was Australia’s hottest month on record, with the country’s mean temperature exceeding 30C for the first time since records began in 1910. The Bureau of Meteorology released its climate summary for January on Friday and said the widespread heatwave conditions and daily extremes were “unprecedented”. “There’s been so many records it’s really hard to count,” said Andrew Watkins, a senior climatologist at the Bom. January was Australia’s warmest month for mean, maximum and minimum temperatures. Large parts of Australia received only 20% of their normal rainfall, particularly throughout the south-east in Victoria and parts of New South Wales and South Australia. Cattle on parched farmland in Coonabrabran, NSW. Photograph: Brook Mitchell/Getty Images Tasmania, which has been battling bushfires throughout the past month, had its driest ever January. Watkins said Borrona Downs in north-west NSW broke the record for hottest minimum temperature, registering one night at 36.6C. Quick Guide Heatwaves and climate change in Australia Show According to the Bureau of Meteorology and the CSIRO, Australia has warmed by 1C since 1910, and temperatures will increase in the future. So how will climate change affect future heatwaves in Australia? The CSIRO and BoM have compiled different models for predicting the outcome of climate change in Australia to produce a guide to how different regions will likely be affected. They found that every part of Australia will continue to experience increases in average temperature, and will have a higher frequency of hot days. The duration of hot spells will increase in every region. In many areas in the northern half of Australia, the average number of days above 35C could increase by two to three times. Late in the century, towns such as Darwin, Alice Springs and Broome may experience days with temperatures above 35C for about a third of the year. These higher temperatures will also result in higher evaporation, which will continue to make drought conditions worse. Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback. Port Augusta recorded the country’s highest temperature in January, reaching 49.5C. “We’ve also seen records in many states set including places like Victoria where Swan Hill and Kerang got up over 47.5C,” Watkins said. Glenelg beach in Adelaide in January. Photograph: Kelly Barnes/AP Menindee in far-west NSW, the site of December and January’s mass fish kills, had four days in a row of temperatures above 47C. In parts of western Queensland and western NSW, there have been long strings of more than 40 days of temperatures above 40C. Cloncurry had 43 days in a row that exceeded 40C. Birdsville in the state’s west had 16 days in January of temperatures higher than 45C and 10 of those days were in a row. Bom said a persistent high-pressure system in the Tasman Sea that blocked cold fronts and cooler air from reaching the country’s south, and a delayed monsoon in the north, contributed to the heatwave. “The warming trend which has seen Australian temperatures increase by more than 1C in the last 100 years also contributed to the unusually warm conditions,” Watkins said. New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and the Northern Territory all had their warmest January on record.<doc-sep>
Roads melted and doctors warned people about heat stress as Australia notched five of its 10 hottest days on record amid a searing heatwave. One town in New South Wales recorded a night-time low temperature of 35.9C – the highest minimum temperature ever recorded anywhere in Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology said. The extreme heat, which has hit the country for a week, has caused dozens of bushfires and bat deaths on a “biblical scale” in Adelaide, South Australia. More than a dozen people in that state have been taken to hospital due to heat, reports said. Temperatures soared past 46C in parts of New South Wales on Friday, setting new records. The state’s Bureau of Meteorology said a run of highest ever maximum temperatures were set in various places in the past few days. The overnight minimum of 35.9C was recorded at Noona. “That’s an all time Australian record for the warmest night at any time of the year,” the bureau’s Ann Farrell said. New South Wales Health warned in a statement: “Signs of heat-related illness include dizziness, tiredness, irritability, thirst, fainting, muscle pains or cramps, headache, changes in skin colour, rapid pulse, shallow breathing, vomiting and confusion.” Officials have made an explicit link between climate change and the increasingly extreme weather being experienced by Australians. The Bureau of Meteorology’s State of the Climate 2018 report warned of “further increases in sea and air temperatures, with more hot days and marine heatwaves, and fewer cool extremes” and blamed global warming for the change. It also said Australia’s oceans were acidifying and sea levels rising. An extreme heatwave affected the tropical Queensland coast just two months ago, in late November. Forecasters have compared it to the nation’s worst heatwave in 2013, when temperatures reached 39C for seven consecutive days. The hottest day on record for Australia is 7 January 2013, when the national average maximum temperature was 40.3C. ✕ Support free-thinking journalism and attend Independent events Meteorology chiefs also revealed this week that Australia had its hottest December day on record last month and that it was also the warmest December ever, as the heatwave got under way. A slight reprieve is forecast over the weekend before the heat starts to build up again early next week.