2009 is officially Australia's hottest ever winter | National News | News.com.au
WEATHER records have been smashed from one end of the country to the other as Australia swelters through its warmest-ever winter.
The Bureau of Meteorology has taken the unusual step of issuing a "special climate statement", confirming what many of us already knew - this winter has been very mild.
"Abnormal heat" has seen some temperature records broken by more than five degrees.
Some regions had their warmest 2009 day in the winter month of August - hotter than any summer day.
Nationally, the average winter maximum temperature is more than 1.6 degrees Celsius above average.
"Average winter maximum temperatures over Australia are likely to be the highest on record," said the Bureau's statement.
And August was particularly warm - more than three degrees above average across the country.
"August 2009 has seen highly abnormal heat over large parts of Australia," the statement said.
The mercury soared above 37 degrees Celsius in some areas during August.
Temperature records were broken by unprecedented margins.
Murwillumbah's August record was broken by 5.1C, while another nine stations broke their records by 4C or more. Many coastal towns in northern NSW and southern Queensland experienced their hottest day of 2009 in August, beating summer highs.
And many centres experienced hot August nights, setting new records for minimum temperatures. Lismore, in northern NSW, broke its record by more than 3C when the overnight temperature stayed at 23.3C on Tuesday night.
Blair Trewin, from the National Climate Centre said the forecast for northern Australia was to remain hot, making a record-setting winter likely.
"To miss out on the record from here, we'd need to have very much below-average temperatures for the next five days, and there is no indication that is going to happen."
He said the hot weather has been more as result of what did not happen than what did. Typically there are warm periods in August, but
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