Will Steffen, Lesley Hughes and Sarah Perkins

Climate Council of Australia

Published date February 19, 2014

Heatwaves: Hotter, Longer, More Often

  • Explores the observed changes to heatwaves in Australia—their severity, duration and timing—and place this in the context of increasing extreme heat around the world
  • Finds that several capital cities—Adelaide, Melbourne and Canberra—are experiencing more intense hot weather than expected, and the increase in hot weather observed in the 2000–2009 decade has already reached the best estimate projected for 2030
  • Finds hot days have doubled in Australia in the last 50 years, and in the last decade, hot weather records have occurred three times more often than cold weather records