Dehydration, death and power cuts: What 50C days would look like in Australia

Australia is hot. But future extreme hot weather will be worse still, with new research predicting that Sydney and Melbourne are on course for 50 degrees Celsius summer days by the 2040s if high greenhouse emissions continue.

That means that places such as Perth, Adelaide and various regional towns could conceivably hit that mark even sooner.

This trend is worrying, but not particularly surprising given the fact that Australia is setting hot weather records at 12 times the pace of cold ones. But it does call for an urgent response.

Most of us are used to hot weather, but temperatures of 50℃ present unprecedented challenges to our health, work, transport habits, leisure and exercise.

Read the piece from The Conversation by Liz Hanna of the Australian National University as published by ABC News - “Dehydration, death and power cuts: What 50C days would look like in Australia.”

‘Really awful': 50-degree days possible for Sydney, Melbourne, as warming worsens

Sydney and Melbourne can expect summer days when the mercury climbs to 50 degrees within a couple of decades if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, new research has found.

A bushfire near Healesville, on the outskirts of
Melbourne on Black Saturday in February 2009. 

The study, led by Sophie Lewis at the Australian National University, analysed new models being prepared for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to examine the difference between a 1.5- and 2-degree warming limit compared with pre-industrial times.

At the upper end of the range – which would amount to a 1.1-degree rise from current global warming levels – NSW's record extremes would increase 3.8 degrees compared with existing records. Those in Victoria would rise by 2.3 degrees, the simulations showed.

For Sydney and Melbourne, populations could swelter in 50-degree weather even if the 2-degree global warming limit agreed in the 2015 Paris accord were achieved, according to the research co-authored by Andrew King from Melbourne University and published Wednesday in Geophysical Research Letters.

Read Peter Hannam”s story in today’s Melbourne Age - “‘Really awful': 50-degree days possible for Sydney, Melbourne, as warming worsens.”

Arizona flights grounded as temperatures set to soar to 50C in extreme heatwave

Temperatures are forecast to rise above 50 degrees Celsius in parts of the south-west United States, as an extreme heatwave forces airlines to ground planes and strains power grids.

Phoenix man Steve Smith tries to keep hydrated
 as temperatures climb to near-record highs. 

Major airlines delayed and cancelled flights out of Las Vegas and Phoenix airports as temperatures hit the high 40s, citing difficulty in operating aircraft in extreme heat.

American Airlines cancelled 20 regional flights out of Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday after temperatures in the desert city soared toward 49 degrees Celsius.

The forecast called for a high of 49 degrees Celsius in Phoenix, 48C in Palm Springs, California, and 52C in Death Valley — a desert valley in Eastern California.

Read the ABC News story - “Arizona flights grounded as temperatures set to soar to 50C in extreme heatwave.”