This winter, it mattered more than most – 2017 was Australia’s warmest on record for average maximum temperatures, which reached nearly 2C above the winter average and beat the previous record set in 2009 by 0.3C, according to a report released by the Climate Council on Tuesday. It was the fifth warmest winter on record for average temperatures, and the driest since 2002. “Winter warm spells are lasting longer, occurring more often and becoming more intense,” the report said. King used computer climate models to compare today’s human-impacted climate with simulations representing an alternative world that excluded human influences. He found the record winter temperatures were 60 times more likely to have been caused by human-included climate change.

Source: The Guardian September 18, 2017 18:00 UTC