Climate data has revealed the world experienced its hottest April on record in 2024, but Australia bucked the trend by registering a cooler than usual month.
Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Blair Trewin said that data sets from major data centres had reported April was the hottest on record globally.
One of the reports available—the Copernicus Climate Change Service—shows that April was 0.67 degrees Celsius (33 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 average and 1.58C above the estimated April average for 1850-1900, taken as a reference for pre-industrial conditions.
But despite a global trend towards a hotter month, Australia was, on average, cooler in April.
“Australia was one of the very few parts of the world which was cooler than average in April, with temperatures about 0.5C below the 1961-1990 average,” Mr. Trewin said.
“However, 2024 to date as a whole is about 1.0C above the 1961-1990 average (because) April ended a run of 10 successive months which had been at least 1C above average.
“The seasonal outlook for the June-August and July-September periods continue to show a high chance of above-average temperatures throughout Australia.”
Mr. Trewin said Australia’s climate had warmed through the year via a number of factors.
“Australia’s climate has warmed year-round, although generally at a slower rate in autumn and winter than in spring or summer,” he said.
State of the Climate 2022 reported that the frequency of extremely cold days and nights has declined, there has been a longer fire season across large parts of the country since the 1950s, and snow depth, snow cover and the number of snow days have decreased in alpine regions since the late 1950s.
Two-Thirds of Australia Affected by Natural Disasters Says Urban Economist
Last year, consulting giant KPMG told the Epoch Times that natural disasters were impacting more than two-thirds of Australians, and that the nation needed to significantly improve infrastructure with the effects of climate change in mind.KPMG Research showed around 18 million Australians were living in regions impacted by at least one natural disaster in 2022.
Almost one-third of Australians were living in areas impacted by bushfires from 2019-20.
“It is highly probable that natural disasters and extreme events will continue to present substantial fiscal risks and impact to Australia’s productivity. Therefore, we must act now to ensure we have resilient infrastructure for future Australians,” KPMG Urban Economist Terry Rawnsley said.
“Governments and infrastructure players must factor long-term sustainability into decision-making from the outset.”
The urban economist noted that communities with the least capacity to absorb disaster costs are those that are impacted the most.
