HEAT records are coming thicker and faster than ever before, while the number of cold records are declining across a continent that has grown warmer over each of the past five decades.
Bureau of Meterology climatologist, Dr Blair Trewin, found that since the mid-1990s, regardless of which end of the scale is being considered, high temperature records outnumber low temperature records.
From 1997-2006, high records for maximum temperature outnumbered low records for maximum temperature by a ratio of 2.5 to one.
Over the same period, high records for minimum temperature outnumbered low records for minimum temperature by a ratio of 2.1 to one.
Dr Trewin found strong seasonal and regional effects in the 1997-2006 temperature record.
In spring, record high maximum temperatures were double the number of record high minimum temperatures; in summer, high minimums were more common.
North-eastern and south-eastern Australia recorded about double the number of record maximum temperatures compared to record high minimums, but in the continent’s north-west and south-west, high minimums were more common.
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