Drought-hit Australia has third-warmest year on record in 2018

Related News Heatwave bakes Australia for 7th straight day as northern cyclone brews India vs Australia: Virat Kohli’s suspension of belief Sydney’s most iconic house isn’t joining the property downturn Australia had its third warmest year on record in 2018, a year marked by severe drought in parts of the country and a prolonged bushfire […]

Australia had its third warmest year on record in 2018, a year marked by severe drought in parts of the country and a prolonged bushfire season, the Bureau of Meterology said, with the dry conditions expected to persist in coming months. Maximum temperatures across Australia were the second-warmest on record at 1.55 degrees C (2.8 degrees F) above average, just behind the hottest year in 2013.

The average temperature across Australia in 2018 was 1.14 degrees C above the average for 1961 to 1990, making nine of the past 10 years hotter than average, the bureau said in its annual climate statement.

Annual rainfall was the seventh lowest on record over the southeastern quarter of the country. “It was a tough year for people dealing with the drought,” Bureau senior climatologist Lynette Bettio said in a statement. The bureau sees little change in the near term.

“The next three months look like a continuation of the warm and dry conditions that we’ve seen actually over the last 24 months or so,” Karl Braganza, the bureau’s head of climate monitoring told reporters. El Nino-like weather conditions that have prevailed in the Pacific Ocean could also suppress rainfall this year, although it was unclear yet how that would develop.