Citation

Richman MB, Leslie LM. Procedia Comput. Sci. 2013; 20: 148-155.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.procs.2013.09.253

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Over half of Australia's population lives in its southeastern quadrant. Temperature records for the 55-year period 1958-2013 indicate that hot summers have occurred increasingly since the 1990s with daily maximum temperatures reaching 10 °C above normal. The extreme nature of the change in monthly mean maximum temperatures (∼1 to 1.5 °C above the long term mean) far exceeds the natural variability expected over a half century. Numerous maximum temperature records have been set and the extreme heat poses a major socioeconomic threat. This work examines changes in mean values of maximum daily temperatures for each summer month, in southeastern Australia. A 10-site dataset, for 1958-2013, was drawn and resampled to quantify temporal changes and uncertainty in decadal monthly maximum temperatures. Resampling methods documented the historical uniqueness of the maximum temperatures in recent decades.

RESULTS suggest strongly that, in recent decades, the maximum temperatures exceeding the upper quartile of the historical data is greater than expected by random chance. The findings confirm the regional nature of the warming. The increase in summer temperature is partly related to changes in atmospheric blocking.

Language: en