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This chart shows the history of

temperatures in Australia
Jan 15, 2020

In the wake of latest Australian bushfires, we examine how the country's temperature has changed. Image: REUTERS/Tracey Nearmy

Johnny Wood In the past century, average temperatures in Australia

Senior Writer, Formative Content have soared – a trend set to continue.

Global warming has increased the frequency and

Share: intensity of bushfires in the country, scientists say.

This summer, 100,000 square kilometres of land have

been scorched.

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Climate Change? year, blazes are sparked as summer sun dries the landscape
leaving forests and woodlands tinder-dry.

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Australia’s bushfires have pumped out half a year's CO2

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Australian bushfires are so huge they're creating

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2019 was no exception. What was exceptional was the speed
with which the wildfires spread and the unprecedented
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This graphic shows how much land has been burned by Australia’s recent bushfires. Image: Reuters

Devastating scale

Australia’s recent wildfires dwarf those in other parts of the

world where blazes are common.

Firefighters in California battle seasonal outbreaks most

years, and blazes have burned in Indonesia and incinerated
vast areas of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest.

As some of its forest species, like eucalyptus, rely on fire to

regenerate, Australia’s fires differ in nature to some of those
events. But in terms of size alone, the total affected area in
the Australian state of New South Wales alone was greater
than that burned by the fires in California, Indonesia and
Brazil combined.

When Queensland, Victoria and other parts of Australia are

included, the current bushfire season has scorched more
than 100,000 square kilometres of land – an area equivalent
in size to Iceland. This has devastated ecosystems, claimed
human lives and killed an estimated 1 billion animals.

Mean temperature anomalies in Australia, 1910-2019 Image: Australian Government, Bureau of Meteorology

Temperatures rising

Scientists have linked the increasing risk of wildfires around

the world to climate change, saying longer periods of hot,
dry weather are creating conditions for fires to take hold.

And maps that track the mean temperature anomaly – a

departure from the long-term average – across Australia
over the past 100 years show the extent of the growing
threat facing the country.

The mean temperature anomaly in Australia in 1919 Image: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

A century ago, average temperatures were considerably

lower than today. With the exception of one or two hotspots
in the south-east, for most of the country mean
temperatures stayed around 1℃ above average.

The contemporary mean temperature anomaly is considerably higher. Image: Australian Bureau of Meteorology

Today, the picture looks very different. Highs of 3℃ above

average in the west are accompanied by higher above-
average temperatures across the whole landmass. The
mean temperature anomaly for large swathes of Australia is
now 1℃ or above.

This trend is set to continue unless urgent action is taken to

address the underlying causes of climate change.

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The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the
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Related topics:

Climate Change Australia

Future of the Environment

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