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Warmest start to the year on record

Rob Sharpe, Tuesday May 17, 2016 - 12:24 AEST

Sydney, Hobart and Darwin are enjoying their warmest start to year on record.

Australiaâ??s summer was a hot one, the sixth hottest on record, and the country has been very slow to cool down. Warmth has lingered well into autumn. March and April have been the warmest and second warmest on record respectively, with May in a similar ball-park.

Australia's east and north have been the slowest to cool due to three main factors: a relatively dry end to the wet season, a lack of strong cold fronts in the south and much warmer-than-normal seas to the north and east of the country.

Brisbane and Canberra have not been left out of the strikingly warm start to the year, recording their second and third warmest starts respectively.

Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth have also been warmer than usual, but not as consistently warm as all the other capitals.

Most recently a large high pressure system has been controlling most of the nation while fronts have dashed Tasmania. This pattern will continue for the rest of this week, with warm and dry weather for much of the country.

However in the following week cloud cover will build for the nation, showing signs of what is to come this winter and spring.

Both of the main climate drivers in the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean have at least a 50% chance of being in their wet phases, meaning that most of the country is likely to see wetter than usual conditions across winter and spring. The extra cloud cover will also mean that this consistent run of near-record national warmth will come to an end, to many people's dismay.

- Weatherzone

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