PLEA Network

19 June 2017, The Conversation, Are heatwaves ‘worsening’ and have ‘hot days’ doubled in Australia in the last 50 years? The release of the Finkel report has refocused national attention on climate change, and how we know it’s happening. On a Q&A episode following the report’s release, Climate Council CEO Amanda McKenzie said we’ve seen: … worsening heatwaves, hot days doubling in Australia in the last 50 years. ….There’s not a large body of research against which to test this claim. But the research we do have suggests there has been an observable increase in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves in Australia. Research published in 2013 found a trend towards more heat waves in Australia between 1951 and 2008. A review paper published in 2016 assessed evidence from multiple studies and found that heatwaves are becoming more intense and more frequent for the majority of Australia. The following chart shows heatwave days per decade from 1950 to 2013, highlighting a trend toward more heatwave days in Australia over time: Read More here