extreme-heat-australia-february-2017

The analysis finds that climate change significantly increased the likelihood of the record-breaking summer heat in New South Wales and the three-day heatwave in Canberra, while the influence on Sydney's heatwave was less clear due to high variability.

• Average summer temperatures in New South Wales similar to those of 2016-2017 are now at least 50 times more likely than they were before global warming began, a conclusion reached using both coupled model simulations and ACORN-SAT observational series comparing current data to the climate around 1910.
• Maximum summer temperatures in New South Wales like those seen in 2016-2017 have increased in frequency from a 1 in 500-year event to roughly a 1 in 50-year event, representing a 10-fold increase in likelihood. Climate change has also increased the intensity of such a summer by approximately 1ºC (1.8°F), with future intensity expected to increase by roughly 2°C (3.6°F) and frequency increasing to roughly once every five years.
• In Canberra, climate change increased the likelihood of the extreme three-day heat observed in February 2017, with weather@home model results indicating at least a 50 percent increase in the chance of such a heatwave.
• The influence of climate change on the heatwave in Sydney is less clear than in other areas; while observations suggest an increased chance of occurrence, high year-to-year variability makes identifying a clear human influence more difficult.

APA

World Weather Attribution (2017). extreme-heat-australia-february-2017. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-heat-australia-february-2017/

Chicago

World Weather Attribution. extreme-heat-australia-february-2017. 2017. https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-heat-australia-february-2017/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Weather Attribution |title=extreme-heat-australia-february-2017 |date=21 February 2017 |url=https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-heat-australia-february-2017/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldweatherattribution2017extremeheataustraliafebruary2017, author = {{World Weather Attribution}}, title = {{extreme-heat-australia-february-2017}}, institution = {World Weather Attribution}, year = {2017}, month = feb, url = {https://www.worldweatherattribution.org/extreme-heat-australia-february-2017/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }