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Southeastern Australia, the hottest place on earth but it's all relative
Max Gonzalez, Sunday February 12, 2017 - 13:04 AEDT
For the past few days, inland areas of southeastern Australia have been registering temperatures in the low-to-mid 40s making it by far the hottest region on the planet over the past few days.
In turn, Canberra hold the title of hottest capital on Friday and Saturday as the mercury soared to 41 degrees two days in a row (14 degrees above the norm).
Though Canberra has seen days in excess of 40 degrees in the past, this is only the third time it has seen consecutive days of 41 degrees or above. The last time this happened, John Gorton had recently taken office as PM in 1968.
But despite the extremes we are currently experiencing, the most astonishing fact is the duration of this event and how hot it has been across southeastern Australia as a whole.
The fact that Australia is the hottest place on earth in February shouldn't come as a surprise, at the end of the day it is summer in the southern hemisphere (dominated by oceans) and winter in the northern hemisphere (dominated by land).
Looking at temperature anomalies (how hot or cold a place is in relation to its average), however, most of Midwestern USA and its eastern states are experiencing temperatures anomalies (warmer than average temperature) of similar magnitude to the ones observed here at home. Dallas in Texas for example, registered a whopping 32 degrees on Saturday, while its average February daytime temperature is about 15 degrees.
Regardless of whether you believe in anthropogenic global warming or not, the planet is getting warmer, extremes are getting more extreme and their frequencies are increasing.
- Weatherzone
© Weatherzone
2017
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