Migratory ducks take flight during sunset in Bagaces, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
Migratory ducks take flight during sunset in Bagaces, Guanacaste, Costa Rica Reuters/Juan Carlos Ulate

The Bureau of Meteorology has revealed that Australia faced record heat in October 2015 – with data that goes back to 1910. Authorities say that the arrival of hot weather, several months earlier than usual, has combined with ongoing dry weather in southern Australia to create conditions that pose a high risk of bushfires. The maximum recorded temperatures in October 2015 were 3.44 degrees higher than the average, said the bureau in its climate report. This eclipsed the earlier record deviation in September 2013 – at 3.41 degrees.

“The extreme monthly anomalies were a result of exceptional early-season warmth at the start of the month and persistence of above-average temperatures throughout the month as a whole,” said the bureau. When compared with the last hottest October of 1988, October 2015 was 0.7 degrees hotter.

Satellite data released by NASA, which compares sea surface heights during the El Nino events of 1997 and 2015, revealed that the 2015 Pacific El Nino is one of the factors driving the warmth. Indian Ocean conditions have also shown reduced rainfall, decreasing the evaporative cooling and further causing temperatures to rise.

The easterly trade winds get reversed or stalled during an El Nino, causing an accumulation of heat in the eastern and central equatorial Pacific. The pattern of rainfall also shows a tendency to shift eastward, drifting from the western Pacific and bringing drought as well as drought-like conditions in countries such as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

“Certainly it's an October that was hotter than most Novembers,” said Karl Braganza, head of climate monitoring at the bureau, reports SMH. Mean temperatures that take into account the average of nights and days, showed even more unusual patterns. October 2015 was 2.89 degrees hotter than the long-term average.

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