It’s time to splash out on a rig with air con and hit the van parks, or else start plotting to find an endless succession of nice waterfront bush camps with cooling breezes … because this summer is going to be an absolute scorcher!
As well as an elevated risk of bushfires, grey nomads are being warned they will need to keep well hydrated and not to overdo it with the mercury set to soar. After a super dry winter, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) has broken with tradition and started its heatwave notification service early.
“We’ve had a much warmer and drier-than average winter this year with maximum temperatures the warmest since national records began in 1910, and it’s likely to stay warmer than average in the months ahead,” BoM meteorologist, Adam Morgan, told the media. “With lower soil moisture and clear skies expected over many areas this summer, the chance of heatwaves is increased.”
A heatwave is officially defined as three days or more of unusually high temperatures above the seasonal maximum or minimum in any given area, and they are becoming far more common.
The Bureau says that, before 1990, it was rare to get more than 10 days of extreme heat per year, now it’s rare not to.
There have been more than 10 heatwaves in each of the last three summers, and in Australia’s ‘Angry Summer’ in 2012-13, there were famously more than 20 extreme heat days.
One small blessing is that, with lingering dry and hot conditions, the risk of flooding is likely to recede. However, the Bureau says there is a slightly higher chance of more cyclones than usual and these could bring flooding of their own. On average, around 11 tropical cyclones develop in the Australian region each year, and around four cross our coast.
What mushroom do these people live under bloody heat wave, it was hotter back in the sixties when I were a kid with no air conditioning and we survived ok, we have all gone soft , what about the melting ice caps there’s. 40 % more ice there now then 4 years ago these morons are manipulating the data to suit their agenda , I’m over these do gooders agender based predictions
Anything to brain wash the poor old grey nomads into thinking this is something new. Except, the grey nomads have a longer memory more than any other current generations and are aware the summers are always hot in Australia.