CANBERRA, (PNA/Xinhua) — Australia has experienced the hottest September, with the national average temperature 2.75 degree Celsius above usual, according to a new report released by the recently established Climate Council on Thursday.
“This September was the hottest September on record following a year that has already broken records for the hottest day, the hottest January and the hottest summer in recorded history,” said climate scientist and report author Professor Will Steffen.
Steffen said Australia is breaking all the wrong records this year.
“This record-breaking September is just one of over a hundred heat-related records already being broken this year. Temperature records are broken from time to time in Australia, but it is the sheer number of records being broken that is really unusual.”
He said Australia was on track to smash yet another worrying climate benchmark — the warmest calendar year to date.
Australia is experiencing persistent heat across the continent, with temperatures from October 2012 to September 1.25 degrees above the long-term average.
Since 1910, average temperatures have risen by 0.9 degree Celsius, with a significant increase in the frequency of hot days and nights noted by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization and Bureau of Meteorology.
Steffen said these records come right after the recent release of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which affirmed that the global temperature is increasing the frequency and intensity of extremely hot days and heatwaves.
“Although Australia has always had heatwaves, hot days and bushfires, climate change is increasing the risk of more frequent and longer heatwaves and more extreme hot days, as well as exacerbating bushfire conditions,” he said.
Steffen emphasized that reducing greenhouse gas emissions was one of the crucial steps to reducing the risk of more severe extreme weather in the future.
“It is important that the community understands the link between heat extremes and climate change. Our efforts to reduce greenhouse gases today can reduce the risk of more and more severe extreme weather in the decades to come,” Professor Steffen said.
The report is the second publication of the newly formed independent Climate Council after the dissolution of the Climate Commission on Sept. 19, the second day after the new cabinet was sworn in.
In just over a week the Council has nearly raised 1 million AU dollars (938,000 U.S. dollars) from over 20,000 people to open as a not-for-profit.