Climate report: Australia will get hot, dry days
NAN-F-25
Climate
Sydney, Oct. 27, 2016 (dpa/NAN) The Bureau of Meteorology and Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation said on Thursday that Australia will experience more extreme hot and dry days.
It said that the country would also experience a longer and fierce fire season while parts of the country will see worse droughts, as well as more flooding.
The biannual report, State of the Climate, released said surface temperature has increased about one degree Celsius since 1910, since the government started recording data.
According to the report, between 1910 and 1941 there were 28 days when the national average temperature was in the top extremes recorded while year 2013 experienced 28 such days.
“Australia experienced its three warmest springs on record in 2013, 14 and 15, temperature and rainfall during this period is critical to southern Australia’s fire season.
“Due to drier and hotter weather, the fire season will be harsher and longer across large parts of Australia.
In recent years, bush fires have already extended into spring and autumn routinely, which was not normal in the past.
“Climate change is happening now; it’s having a tangible impact on Australia,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s climate monitoring manager Karl Braganza told reporters at the launch.
He said the record-breaking extreme heat will be considered normal in 30 years’ time, as well as extreme weather events.
According to the report, rainfall between May and July, the growing season for winter crops, dropped almost 20 per cent in the southern region since 1970.
It said that April-October rainfall reduced by around 11 per cent since the mid-1990s in the same area.
Meanwhile, rainfall in the north has increased since the 1970s.
The Australian government has been criticised for being too slow to make necessary changes regarding environmental protection, as well as meeting pollution targets and adopting green technology.
It heavily relies on fossil fuels like coal and the country still has not ratified the Paris accord on climate change. (dpa/NAN)
OYE/AFA
Edited by Damilola Oyewole/Felix Ajide
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