Australia has endured the hottest month in its history this January, which included drought, bushfires, mass deaths of fish and other animals, and sweltering heat which climate scientists said was an impact of climate change, according to The Guardian.
Australia's mean temperature in January was above 30C (86 F) for the first time ever, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
“There have been so many records it’s really hard to count,” said Andrew Watkins, a senior climatologist at BoM.
December was also the country's warmest one on record, with heatwaves hitting almost every state and territory.
There was a massive high-pressure system in the Tasman Sea that obscured cold fronts from delivering cooler air to southern Australia, along with a delayed monsoon in the north which added 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.
The BoM's monthly report detailed how heatwaves were both unprecedented in scale and duration, such as Birdsville, Queensland, where the temperature was above 45C for 10 days.
Tasmania has seen several bushfires break out in the past month due to dry conditions, while New South Wales also broke its own record for hottest minimum temperature with one day registering at 36.6C overnight.
Ecosystems were not only hit by the heat, but also by widespread drought since Australia only received 20 percent of the normal rainfall in several portions of the country, especially in NSW and Victoria.
Menindee in western NSW saw four days in a row with temperatures above 47C, which was also the site of several mass fish deaths in the Darling River when hundreds of thousands of Murray cod, golden perch, and bony bream, died.
Authorities said the deaths were due to "thermal stratification" causing algae blooms that deprived the water of oxygen.
Labor leader Bill Shorten said the massive die-offs were "the makings of an ecological disaster. This is not standard, this is not normal. This is a disaster.”
The BoM warned the temperatures would continue to rise in the future due to climate change since a report from the agency released last month said warming was contributing to a long-term increase in the frequency of extreme heat, fire weather and drought.
“Australia is already experiencing climate change now and there are impacts being experienced or felt across many communities and across many sectors,” said Helen Cleugh, the director of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, which collaborated on the report.
The study revealed Australia's fire seasons were extending, in some areas by months, and were also becoming more severe.
Sea levels were already risen by 20 cm in some areas and ocean temperatures were increasing by 1C, which is already causing acidification that has damaged the Great Barrier Reef.
-WN.com, Maureen Foody
Photo:
AP / Dan Peled, AAP Image via AP
