Have recent record heats been normal?
Aillie Gallant (The Conversation, 30.10.14) discusses ‘unseasonable’ weather, citing five separate studies published last month in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that ‘found the record heat of recent years should not be considered normal. In fact, far from being typical, all studies found evidence of the “handprint” of human-induced climate change on the unusual conditions of 2013’. Notably, this research found that the likelihood of experiencing the record hot spring of 2013 in Australia was 30 times greater with the influence of human-induced climate change than without. The record hot year of 2013 was 2,000 times more likely as a result of climate change.
Shooting the messenger?
‘A Nationals MP has called for an inquiry into the weather bureau accusing it of fudging figures on the impact of climate change. George Christensen says the Bureau Of Meteorology has wiped off early temperature records to justify its claims the weather is getting hotter.’ (Sydney Morning Herald, 29.10.14)