Graph of the Day: December Sea Surface Temperature Anomaly for the Australia Region, 1900-2010

The switch from El Niño to La Niña across the South Pacific has brought cooler than average temperatures to eastern Australia for 2010. The President of the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society, Prof. Neville Nicholls has described the current La Niña as ‘super strong’—either strongest or second strongest on record, with the highest December Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) value on record. But the preceding decade was the continent’s hottest on record, closely tracking world average temperatures. Globally, 2010 equaled 2005 as the hottest year on record for both land and sea—0.6°C above the twentieth century average, 0.75°C since the Industrial Revolution. In January, parts of the Northern Territory and South Australia experienced record hot spells, with Yulara near Uluru facing fifteen days above 40°C and nine days above 42°C.

Climate Institute, Climate Change and Extreme Weather Events Factsheet, February 2011 [pdf]