Australia hits 123 degrees, tying hottest temperature on record in Southern Hemisphere
( source: The Washington Post )
The Australian high is just one of many temperature extremes to occur in the past two years
People gather at a each in Sydney on Dec. 19 as a heat wave moved across Australia. (Bianca De Marchi/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
The Southern Hemisphere may have just matched its hottest temperature on record Thursday. A station in Onslow, a small coastal town in Western Australia, registered a sweltering 123.3 degrees (50.7 degrees Celsius) amid a severe heat wave.
The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has begun a meticulous review of the temperature reading. If verified, it would tie the all-time high reading set in Oodnadatta, Australia, on Jan. 2, 1960.
A massive heat dome was parked over Western Australia, with Onslow sitting directly underneath it. Temperatures were about 20 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius) above normal at the hottest time of year.
European model analysis of high temperatures Monday in Australia. Green areas are at least 50 Celsius (122 degrees). (WeatherBell)
“Considering the increasing temperature trends over the past decades, it is less surprising that we see extreme temperatures like the one in Western Australia at the moment,” wrote Nina Ridder, researcher at the Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes at the University of New South Wales at Sydney.
Western Australia is currently coming off its third-warmest December in 2021. Ridder said mean sea surface temperatures in northwest Western Australia have also been above average — about 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) higher in December 2021 than average — and could have detrimental effects on marine ecosystems, such as inducing coral bleaching.
The extreme temperature arrives the same week that several of the world’s top climate research institutions announced the past seven years have been the hottest in recorded history. In that time, temperature records have been broken across the world. The WMO has four ongoing investigations, having just completed another.
“Since the creation of the WMO World Archive of Weather and Climate Extremes in 2007, we have never had so many ongoing verification/evaluations as we currently do,” Randy Cerveny, who leads the World Meteorological Organization’s weather and climate extremes team, wrote in an email.
Here is a select list of verified and unverified national and international record-breaking temperatures (in recorded history) in just the past two years:
World’s hottest year at 1.08 degrees (0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than 1981-2010 average: 2020 tied with 2016
World’s hottest month at 1.67 degrees (0.93 degrees Celsius) above the 20th-century average: July 2021
World’s hottest (and North America’s hottest) reliable temperature at 129.9 degrees (54.4 degrees Celsius), at least since 1931: Death Valley, Calif., Aug. 16, 2020, and July 9, 2021
Arctic’s hottest temperature at 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit(38 degrees Celsius): Verkhoyansk, Russia, June 20, 2020.
Antarctica’s coldest season with an average of minus-78 degrees Fahrenheit (minus-61 Celsius): 2021
Europe’s hottest temperature at 119.8 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 degrees Celsius): Syracuse, Italy, Aug. 11, 2021
Canada’s hottest temperature at 121 degrees Fahrenheit (49.6 degrees Celsius): Lytton, B.C., June 29, 2021
Turkey’s hottest temperature at 120.4 degrees Fahrenheit (49.1 degrees Celsius): Cizre, July 20, 2021
Spain’s hottest temperature at 117 degrees Fahrenheit (47.4 degrees Celsius): Montoro, Aug. 14, 2021
Greece’s hottest temperature at 115.3 degrees Fahrenheit (46.3 degrees Celsius): Makrakomi, Aug. 2, 2021
Paraguay’s hottest temperature at 113.9 degrees Fahrenheit (45.5 degrees Celsius): Pozo Hondo, Sept. 26, 2020
Oman’s hottest temperature at 124.9 degrees Fahrenheit (51.6 degrees Celsius): Joba, June 16, 2021
United Arab Emirates tied hottest temperature at 125.2 degrees Fahrenheit (51.8 degrees Celsius): Sweihan, June 6, 2021
Iraq’s hottest temperature at 125.2 degrees Fahrenheit (51.8 degrees Celsius): Baghdad, July 28, 2020
Cuba’s hottest temperature at 102.7 degrees Fahrenheit (39.3 degrees Celsius): Veguitas, Aug. 11, 2020
Ghana’s hottest temperature at 111.2 degrees Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius): Navrongo, April 6, 2020
Lebanon’s hottest temperature at 113.7 degrees Fahrenheit (45.4 degrees Celsius): Houche Al Oumara, July 27, 2020
Contiguous United States’ warmest December with an average of 39.3 degrees Fahrenheit (4 degrees Celsius): 2021
According to climatologist Maximiliano Herrera, in all, 10 different countries tied or broke national heat records in 2021 (Morocco, Taiwan, Tunisia and Dominica, in addition to those listed above).
Those extremes are just scratching the surface. Outside of national or international records, unprecedented extremes are occurring in local communities and at smaller time scales as well. Cerveny said local high temperatures are being “exceeded much more frequently than low-temperature records.”
Herrera documented 400 weather stations in communities or outposts worldwide that established all-time high temperatures in 2021.
Buenos Aires hits 106 degrees, second-highest temperature on record
“We are seeing more frequent extremes in temperature,” Cerveny wrote. “The climate that we have lived through over the past decades is changing and we must be aware of that — and realize those fundamental changes have consequences to our way of life.”
