Australian Heatwave Harbinger of Hot Summer, Hotter Century

Summary

A heat­wave has hit north­ern Australia, with tem­per­a­tures expected to reach up to 40 ºC, much warmer than the aver­age max­i­mum tem­per­a­ture in October. A new report warns that cli­mate change is mak­ing heat­waves more dan­ger­ous for human health and agri­cul­ture, with the impact expected to worsen in the com­ing decades, par­tic­u­larly in vul­ner­a­ble regions like sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.

A three-day heat­wave has hit north­ern Australia, an unusual phe­nom­e­non at this time of year, accord­ing to the Queensland Bureau of Meteorology.

The author­i­ties said the heat­wave affected most of the north­east­ern state’s coast­line and far­ther inland, with tem­per­a­tures expected to hit the mid-thir­ties and reach up to 40 ºC.

Meteorologist Kimba Wong told local media that tem­per­a­tures were expected to be a full 5 ºC warmer than the aver­age max­i­mum tem­per­a­ture in October, the first full month of spring in Australia.

The extremely early onset of the cur­rent heat­wave may indi­cate a larger trend tak­ing palace in Australia. Studies con­ducted by Australian and European mete­o­rol­o­gists found that ​“future heat­wave sever­ity is asso­ci­ated with increas­ing CO2 emis­sions, par­tic­u­larly along the east coast and south­ern Australia.”

In a recent report, the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization warned that west­ern Sidney, in south­east Australia, may expe­ri­ence twice as many days with tem­per­a­tures exceed­ing 35 ºC by 2030 as it does now.

The report esti­mated this fig­ure could triple by 2050 and increase by five-fold by the end of the cen­tury. Researchers added that a sim­i­lar trend would likely occur with days exceed­ing 40 ºC.

As some Australians are already turn­ing on the air con­di­tion­ing to cope with ris­ing tem­per­a­tures and high humid­ity, offi­cials are wor­ried that the early arrival of hot weather in spring serves as a har­bin­ger for the approach­ing sum­mer.

Australia’s first heat­wave of the sea­son coin­cides with the release of a new United Nations and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) report.

The report found that cli­mate change is mak­ing heat­waves more dan­ger­ous for human health, and ​“aggres­sive steps” are required to avoid recur­rent heat-related health crises.

The report’s authors also noted that heat­waves are already tak­ing a sig­nif­i­cant toll on agri­cul­ture and forestry, trig­ger­ing wild­fires and destroy­ing crops.

They warned that the most vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple, includ­ing agri­cul­tural labor­ers, and coun­tries were likely to be most affected by sus­tained hot weather as it becomes more com­mon.

However, the authors added, ​“almost every­where that reli­able data is avail­able, heat­waves are the dead­liest weather-related haz­ard.”

The researchers fur­ther pre­dicted that the grow­ing impact of heat­waves would not stop as global green­house gas emis­sions con­tinue to rise.

The north­ern parts of sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and Southwest Asia are expected to expe­ri­ence some of the most severe heat­waves in the com­ing decades, exac­er­bat­ing inequal­ity, strain­ing lim­ited gov­ern­ment resources and result­ing in ​“large-scale suf­fer­ing and loss of life.”

The report’s release comes just weeks before the 27^th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27), which is tak­ing place in Egypt.

“The cli­mate cri­sis is inten­si­fy­ing human­i­tar­ian emer­gen­cies all around the world,” said Jagan Chapagain, the sec­re­tary-gen­eral of the IFRC. ​“To avert its most dev­as­tat­ing impacts, we must invest equally on adap­ta­tion and mit­i­ga­tion, par­tic­u­larly in the coun­tries most at risk.”

“At COP27, we will urge world lead­ers to ensure that this invest­ment reaches local com­mu­ni­ties that are on the front­line of the cli­mate cri­sis,” he added. ​“If com­mu­ni­ties are pre­pared to antic­i­pate cli­mate risks and equipped to take action, we will pre­vent extreme weather events from becom­ing human­i­tar­ian dis­as­ters.”

• IFRC
• ABC News
• Australian Bureau of Meteorology