Australia: Hottest six months on record
(AAP) — Australia has recorded its hottest six months ever, and is well on track to have the second hottest year since records began, the Bureau of Meteorology says. The World Meteorological Organisation’s annual climate statement released today at Copenhagen found temperatures in 2009 reached 0.44 degrees above the 1961-1990 annual average. “The decade 2000-2009 is very likely to be the warmest on record,” WMO secretary general Michel Jarraud told reporters at the Copenhagen climate summit late on Tuesday, Australian time. Australia was singled out for its wild weather in 2009. “Australia had the third-warmest year on record with three exceptional heatwaves,” Mr Jarraud said. The WMO report said the heatwaves happened in January/February, when the hot weather contributed to the disastrous Victorian bushfires, in August and again in November. … “The last six months have been the warmest six months on record for Australia,” Dr Jones told reporters in Melbourne today. “We expect 2009 will be either the second warmest year on record for Australia or the third warmest.” …
