Humans play role in Australia’s “angry” hot summer Sophie Lewis and David Karoly School of Earth Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science, University of Melbourne Report on new research study: “Anthropogenic contributions to Australia’s record summer temperatures of 2013”, just published online in Geophysical Research Letters.

Very much above average temperatures in summer 2012/13

Record high average Australian temperature in summer 2012/13

Are the recent extreme temperatures due to Natural climate variability, or Greenhouse climate change ?? Maybe this is a silly question. In practice, we need to quantify the different factors affecting the likelihood of extreme weather and climate events. Our analysis has been very rapid, much faster than earlier studies, such as the Moscow 2010 heatwave or the 2003 record summer temperatures in western Europe.

Changes in temperature extremes in a warmer climate