Australia among countries growing hotter faster: report

London: Summer days are growing hotter in the world's big cities at a significantly faster pace than the average rise in world temperatures.

A tennis fan does his best to keep cool on day four of
the Australian Open in Melbourne, this week.

It is a trend that could mean more deadly urban heatwaves in years ahead, scientists have claimed.

The trend is particularly pronounced in parts of Australia, Europe and, East Asia, a report released in the journal Earth's Future said.

In cities such as Paris, Houston, Moscow and Beijing, heat on the hottest summer days is growing two or three times as quickly as general temperature rises linked to climate change over the last 50 years, said researchers at the University of California-Irvine.

Read the story from today’s Melbourne Age - “Australia among countries growing hotter faster: report.”

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.”