By Michael PerryTue Jan 5, 2010 9:24am EST SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia experienced its hottest decade on record from 2000 to 2009 due to global warming, the nation’s bureau of meteorology said on Tuesday, as annual summer bushfires again burn drought lands and destroy homes. The average temperature in Australia over the past 10 years […]
AAP — Koalas are highly vulnerable to climate change and face starvation, a leading conservation group has warned. The koala – an Australian icon known the world over – has made it on to a global list of 10 well-known species threatened by climate change, along with the fish that inspired the cartoon character, Nemo. […]
(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 […]
By Rebecca Lindsey A spring heat wave scorched southeastern Australia in mid-November 2009, pushing the fire danger to the “catastrophic” category in parts of South Australia and New South Wales and to “extreme” in other surrounding areas. Many cities, including Melbourne and Adelaide experienced record-breaking temperatures that continued for many days. This pair of images […]
SOUTHERN Australia stands to have the worst drought conditions since the 1930s as maximum summer temperatures soar, Victoria’s rural fire authority says. In a weather presentation to federal Victorian MPs at Parliament House in Canberra, Country Fire Authority chief fire officer Russell Rees also said there was a 55 per cent chance of summer temperatures […]
By MARIAN WILKINSON ENVIRONMENT EDITORNovember 23, 2009 SYDNEY sweltered in near record-breaking heat yesterday as the temperature climbed above 40 degrees across the city just after 3pm. At the airport the mercury hit 42.5, pipping Penrith’s high of 42.1. And the metropolitan heat was almost as fierce as the 43 recorded in the state’s north-west […]
By ELLIE HARVEY AND BELLINDA KONTOMINASNovember 23, 2009 FIRES burned aggressively across NSW yesterday, scorching about 12,000 hectares of the state but claiming just one property. About 130 fires were fanned by sweltering heat and gusty conditions that led to emergency warnings for eight towns. This level of warnings advises residents to enact their bushfire […]
By JOSEPHINE TOVEYNovember 22, 2009 THE worst fire conditions ever seen in November are expected today as the mercury rises to about 40 degrees and beyond across NSW. The Rural Fire Service, already stretched with 1000 firefighters battling more than 140 blazes across the state yesterday, is bracing for what Assistant Commissioner Rob Rogers described […]
“Future firefighters have their work cut out for them.,” says Janet Larsen, Director of Research for the Earth Policy Institute, in a recent release, “Inferno on Earth: Wildfires Spreading as Temperatures Rise“. Perhaps nowhere does this hit home harder than in Australia, where in early 2009 a persistent drought, high winds, and record high temperatures […]
By DEBORAH SMITH SCIENCE EDITORNovember 20, 2009 FIVE major fires are burning in NSW as the state swelters in a heatwave that has seen decades-old records fall. The state has experienced both its hottest November day and hottest November night since observations began. The mercury soared to 46.4 degrees at Tibooburra in the north-west of […]
