Most of Australia is continuing to experience unseasonably warm weather this week as down south, Tasmania faces record destructive wind gusts.
Four of Australia’s eight major cities were expected to climb to at least 20C on Monday, including Sydney (22C), Brisbane (27C), Perth (20C) and Darwin (33C) after hovering about 8C above normal for July over the weekend in some parts of inland eastern Australia.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines said the warm conditions would persist into the week and remain above average until at least Wednesday.
“It will cool off a few degrees, we’re shaving [the] very top off but the vast majority of Australia is tracking for a warm few days,” Hines said.
“Almost the entire country was above average for maximum Monday temperatures by between two and six degrees, and on the weekend, all of Australia was sitting above a degree or two.”
Parts of New South Wales and Victoria set records for the highest recorded temperature in July over the weekend, including Forbes airport (22.6C), Condobolin (24C), Mount Nowa Nowa (24.8C), Cooranbong and Norah Head.
On Tuesday, central and eastern Australia were tracking for temperatures marginally above average while Western Australia was still forecast to be “really, really warm”, up to eight degrees above average into Wednesday.
The far western coastline was expected to cool on Wednesday as a cold front moved across the state, gradually spreading out across southern states later in the week.
Hines said periods of warmer weather in winter weren’t unusual in isolated areas, but what was uncommon was the geographical reach.
“It’s almost the whole country,” he said. “You’re going to have warm stretches across one area, but seeing such an extensive breadth of warm weather is fairly unusual.”
Sydney hit 25.2C on Sunday afternoon, with even higher temperatures in the western suburbs as Penrith and Bankstown reached 26C by 2.30pm. The following seven days were expected to reach at least 20C.
Melbourne reached 18C on Saturday and Sunday, while in Brisbane, the temperature peaked at 25.7C, after a 25.4C day on Saturday – its warmest so far this month.
The unusual warm winter weather comes as wildfires and heatwaves lash Europe. Global temperatures shattered records this month, with July on track to be the hottest month ever recorded, according to the World Meteorological Organization.
Hines said it was not the case that the “heat [had] drifted south of the equator”, but there were contributing elements, including warm ocean conditions.
Much higher than usual average surface ocean temperatures were being recorded around the world and were contributing to current local conditions, with particularly warm water off the Queensland coast.
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2023-07-30 23:08:55
Source from www.theguardian.com
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