Climate scientists say likelihood of extreme summers surging due to global warming

New South Wales, which has just experienced its hottest summer on record, is 50 times more likely to experience another similarly hot summer and 10 times more likely to experience extremely hot days under climate change, according to a group of Australian climate scientists.

The mean temperature in Sydney was 2.8C above
average in December, January, and February,
 according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and
climate scientists say the probability of
extreme weather is increasing.

The mean temperature in Sydney was 2.8C above average in December, January, and February, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, and the three-day heatwave from 9 February to 11 was the hottest on record from Sydney to Brisbane, breaking records set in 1939.

It us the kind of weather event that would have been considered a one in 500-year occurrence before 1910, before global warming had a significant impact on the climate system, but had now become a one in 50-year event, according to a new analysis released on Thursday.

Read Calla Wahlquist’s story on The Guardian - “Climate scientists say likelihood of extreme summers surging due to global warming.”