New national average maximum temperature record set

[gary]

Well its official. In a story in the Sydney Morning Herald by Peter Hannam,
the Bureau of Meteorology reports that on Monday a new national
average maximum of 40.33 degrees occured, beating the previous record - set
on December 21, 1972 - by what they describe as a "sizable margin" of 0.16 degrees.

The Bureau also reports six of the 20 hottest days in Australian records have been
in 2013, likely to rise to seven when yesterday's numbers are tallied.

Story here in Sydney Morning Herald -
http://www.smh.com.au/environment/weather/temperatures-off-the-charts-as-australia-turns-deep-purple-20130108-2ce33.html

At 00:40 here in Sydney, it was still 36C. It rose as high as 42C here during the day.

We remained vigilant during the whole day in case there was a bush fire in the
neighboring national park.

Thanks to all the guys and girls out there, such as Ric, who are volunteers with the RFS. :thumbsup:

[hotspur]

Interesting stats Gary,just hope it rains soon.

Its said the monsoon that hit far northern Australia,is not happening this year-its much further north than usual,apparently-which makes for a very hot Australia.

Sad to see bushfires in Southern Australia.

[mithrandir]

Gary, out here it had dropped from 42.5 at 14:30 to 33.5 at midnight, and 32 at 03:00.

Then the southerly must have come in because it was 24.5 at 04:00 and bottomed out at 21 just after 06:00.

Today's peak was 27 and it's a fraction below 20 now at 22:20.

[Barrykgerdes]

Average temperatures need to be looked at in the right perspective and not used as an excuse for other problems.

The temperature in my neightbours covered patio on Tuesday reached 47.5 around 11:00AM but next time I looked at around 2:00PM it had dropped to 42.5

Barry

PS I have the house air conditioned in three sections. The main house has a 3.5KW unit and the bedroom and computer room have smaller units. During the heat I adjourned to the computer room at a comfortable 22. The household electric consumption was only 1.3 KW and the input from the solar panels 1.6KW at night I transferred the A/C to the bedroom (we needed the dooner). The total electric consumption for the 24hr period was 19 KWH ($5.18) and the solar input 9.7KW ($5.82) a nett gain my way.

[andyc]

Barry, well done on the solar panels- a good demonstration of the value of solar power generation being excellently compatible with a/c demand on hot dry days. Australia's heat record is a symptom of that well-known ongoing and worsening global problem... every year there is extra heat in the Earth system (we all know why), sometimes in the oceans, sometimes in the atmosphere, sometimes melting ice. It's not going away, but as it sloshes about the planet, it can concentrate in places. Heat records globally outweigh cool records by two or three to one. Like Russian Roulette, you don't know when it's your turn. last boreal summer it was the USA's turn, this austral summer it appears to be Australia's turn. Hope everyone stays safe from the bushfires.