A series of weather maps have revealed how temperatures in Australia have skyrocketed over the last 110 years – after the country experienced its driest and hottest year on record.
The graphic, produced by the Bureau of Meteorology, illustrates how far above or below average annual mean temperatures were each year from 1910 to 2019.
The differences are measured by comparing figures to the international standard which uses the 30-year average from 1961 to 1990 as the long-term average.
Changes are indicated using a colour temperature scale ranging from -3.0C to 3.0C, with blues and greens indicating below average temperatures (-1.0C to -3.0C) and yellow, red and brown indicating above average (1.0 to 3.0C).
A series of maps produced by the Bureau of Meteorology shows the anomaly of mean temperature for each calendar year between 1910 and 2019. Temperatures have continued go above average over the years
![The highest average maximum temperature was 49.9C, recorded at Nullarbor in South Australia, which set a new record for December](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/10/02/23218048-7871115-The_highest_average_maximum_temperature_was_49_9C_recorded_at_Nu-a-2_1578621900769.jpg)
The highest average maximum temperature was 49.9C, recorded at Nullarbor in South Australia, which set a new record for December
![Australia was reported to have experienced its warmest year on record, with the annual national mean temperature being 1.52C above average, well above the previous record of 1.33C in 2013](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/10/02/23218062-7871115-Australia_was_reported_to_have_experienced_its_warmest_year_on_r-a-3_1578621900776.jpg)
Australia was reported to have experienced its warmest year on record, with the annual national mean temperature being 1.52C above average, well above the previous record of 1.33C in 2013
The images depict a gradual but steady rise over the years, with above average temps becoming more common after 2012.
Overall, Australian temperatures have risen by 1.4C since 1910, with much of that occurring since the mid-20th century.
An alarming weather map for 2019 showed yellows and reds across the country, meaning above-average temperature anomalies were recorded in nearly all of Australia.
The last time below average temperature anomalies appeared to have been recorded was in 2012, in the Northern Territory, according to the maps.
The revelations follow BoM’s annual climate report for Australia in 2019 – with even more troubling findings.
Australia was reported to have experienced its warmest year on record, with the annual national mean temperature being 1.52C above average, well above the previous record of 1.33C in 2013.
The highest average maximum temperature was 49.9C, recorded at Nullarbor in South Australia, which set a new record for December.
![Maps detailing the change in rainfall over the same period shows rainfall is at an all-time low](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/10/02/23218054-7871115-Maps_detailing_the_change_in_rainfall_over_the_same_period_shows-a-5_1578621900784.jpg)
Maps detailing the change in rainfall over the same period shows rainfall is at an all-time low
![Rainfall for the year was a record-breaking low of 277.6mm, the previous record being 314.5mm back in 1902](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/10/02/23218050-7871115-Rainfall_for_the_year_was_a_record_breaking_low_of_277_6mm_the_p-a-1_1578622034588.jpg)
Rainfall for the year was a record-breaking low of 277.6mm, the previous record being 314.5mm back in 1902
The country also suffered its driest year to date with a national average rainfall of 277.6 mm, 40 per cent below the average, breaking the previous record of 314.5 mm back in 1902.
The second half of the year was particularly dry across most of the southern half of Australia, after several years of below average rainfall in Queensland and NSW.
All capital cities were warmer and drier than average in 2019.
‘It’s quite a common occurrence for dry and warm conditions to be coupled to each other in Australia,’ the bureau’s head of climate monitoring, Dr Karl Braganza, said on Thursday.
‘Having said that, we’ve been keeping rainfall records since 1900 and temperature records since 1910, we’ve never seen an overlapping … of both the hottest year on record and the driest year on record.’
What might seem like a small rise is causing dramatic shifts in weather patterns and exacerbating bushfires that have swept across parts of the country, leaving blackened earth and unimaginable grief in their wake.
More fierce, more frequent and longer bushfire seasons – stretching for months – are becoming the new normal.
Australia’s general warming has been combined with other climate drivers which favour warm and dry conditions, including specific patterns in sea-surface temperatures in the Indian Ocean and the winds that circle Antarctica.
Dr Braganza said 2019’s particularly dry, hot conditions can’t be dismissed as an unusual one-off with Australia getting about five times the number of extreme hot days it did in the mid-20th century.
![Dry conditions and high temperatures have given rise to a catastrophic bushfire season which has so far claimed 25 lives, destroyed 2,000 homes and killed close to a billion animals](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2020/01/10/02/23166804-7871115-Catastrophic_The_current_bushfire_season_in_Australia_has_so_far-a-23_1578621666216.jpg)
Dry conditions and high temperatures have given rise to a catastrophic bushfire season which has so far claimed 25 lives, destroyed 2,000 homes and killed close to a billion animals
‘There’s multiple lines of evidence, so we look at what the globe is doing, what the physics of the atmosphere and the oceans are doing, and then what our records are telling us,’ he said.
‘It’s part of a clear pattern that we’re seeing and that’s what we’re reporting on.’
In 2019, there were 11 days where the national average temperature was above 40C. There were only two such days in 1972, two in 2013, and seven in the 2018/19 summer.
Bushfire season typically starts early in Queensland and northern NSW before being killed off by monsoonal conditions. But this year it raged on, and severe fire conditions kicked in much sooner than usual.
Above-average temperatures are expected for the rest of summer, and a number of cyclones are also brewing.
It can be hard to determine the influence of climate change on a specific weather event, Dr Braganza said, but it’s clear that there has been change.
‘We know that there’s a trend in both the severity of fire weather, the frequency of it, and an extension of the season,’ he said.