SIZZLING
SOUTH: Heatstressed bats lined up for feeding at an animal clinic in
Australia. At least 50,000 bats were killed by the heat wave
Canberra
(Australia): Bats are dropping from trees, kangaroos are collapsing in
the Outback and gardens are turning brown. While North America freezes
under record polar temperatures, the southern hemisphere is experiencing
the opposite extreme as heat records are being set in Australia after
the hottest year ever.
Weather forecasters in Australia said some parts of the sparsely populated Pilbara
region along the rugged northwest coast on Thursday were approaching
50°C. The record high of 50.7°C was set in 1960 in Oodnadatta, South
Australia state. Outback resident Gian Tate, 60, spends much of
the day soaking in a small wading pool at her home near Emu Creek in the
Pilbara region,
a remote area off the electric grid. The thermometer outside her home
registered 50°C on Wednesday, she said. “We’ve just got to live with it;
there’s nothing you can do,” she said.
The late arrival of the
monsoon in northern Australia, which has a cooling effect, is
contributing to the searing heat, said Karly Braganza, the manager of
climate monitoring at the Bureau of Meteorology. Global warming also is
playing a role, he said.
So far, this year’s heat wave, which
started around Christmas and has moved counterclockwise across
Australia’s north, is not as extensive or prolonged as last year’s. But
it would likely continue and move toward South Australia state, Braganza
predicted.
Since December 27, records have been set at 34
locations across Australia — some by large margins — where temperature
data has been collected for at least 40 years mostly in Queensland and
New South Wales states.
The extreme temperatures come on the
heels of Australia’s hottest year on record, beating the previous record
year of 2005, with mean temperatures 1.2°C above the 1961-90 average.
In Winton, parrots, kangaroos and emus have been found dead in the
parched landscape.
