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AUSTRALIA-WEATHER-HEATWAVE-TOURISM
Australian towns among hottest spots on Earth as heatwave sizzles
SYDNEY, Jan 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Australian towns were among the hottest
places on Earth this week as a severe heatwave hit the continent’s southeast,
with forecasters warning of more record-breaking temperatures before the
weekend.
The past four days were among the country’s top 10 warmest on record, with
temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in some
spots, the Bureau of Meteorology said Wednesday.
“With South Australia breaking some all-time records yesterday, it would
certainly put this region as one of the warmest parts of the world yesterday,
if not the warmest,” the bureau’s senior meteorologist Philip Perkins told
AFP.
“The places that broke records yesterday are already warmer at this time
today as they were yesterday.”
High temperatures are not unusual in Australia during its arid southern
hemisphere summer, with bushfires a common occurrence.
But climate change has pushed up land and sea temperatures and led to more
extremely hot days and severe fire seasons.
Among the towns in South Australia state experiencing their hottest
temperatures on record Tuesday was tiny Tarcoola in the region’s far north,
which reached 49 degrees Celsius.
The city of Port Augusta recorded a temperature of 48.9 degrees Celsius,
almost one degree higher than its previous record set on February 7, 2009 —
the same day Victoria state endured the devastating “Black Saturday”
bushfires that left 173 dead in the nation’s worst natural disaster.
The desert town of Coober Pedy — where some residents live underground to
escape the harsh conditions — equalled its temperature record of 47.4
degrees Celsius.
In the state’s capital Adelaide, where cycling’s Tour Down Under and the
cricket One Day International between Australia and India were being held,
athletes sweltered through a maximum temperature of 41.9 degree Celsius.
Overnight temperatures were also set to remain high, before a rapid change
to cooler conditions from late Thursday when a cold front currently over the
Southern Ocean sweeps across southern Australia, Perkins said.
“Everything’s sort of a bit of a pressure cooker at the moment, and
everything’s getting hotter and more humid and we’re all doing a slow clap
waiting for this change to come through,” he added.
Australia’s creatures, already battered by a drought plaguing the east of
the vast continent, are also feeling the heat.
Up to one million fish are believed to have died along the banks of a major
river system, with authorities warning of more deaths to come as temperatures
soar.
The New South Wales state government said it would install aerators in some
waterways to keep the levels of oxygen up for fish to reduce the likelihood
of more mass deaths.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1107 hrs