Pejar Dam, the water supply in the heart ofAustralia's sheep grazing country, sits nearly empty during a drought. Will Burgess / Reuters / Corbis IF YOU thought it has been unseasonably warm lately, you are correct – the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed that this is almost certainly going to be the hottest August on record by a big margin. Temperature records across NSW and Queensland were smashed by three degrees or more this week. The winter heatwave is ”highly abnormal”, according to a special climate statement released by the bureau yesterday. … A new NSW August record of 36.3 degrees, set at Mungindi, near Moree, on Monday, was broken in the same town the next day, when the thermometer tipped 37.8 degrees.

Abnormal weather a hot August blight