Ouch! Expert warns Australia is going to get hotter with heatwaves expected to hit 50C in the future
An expert has warned Australian weather is only going to get hotter, with heatwaves likely to push 50C in the future.
The warning comes as Perth battled record-hitting heat over the weekend.
A Climate Council report warns heatwaves are likely to become ‘hotter and longer’ with extremities which once occurred every three years, now happening every 200 days.
Heatwaves are defined as three or more consecutive days with high day and night-time temperatures.
Perth is struggling through its longest run of days above 39C, but Professor Will Steffen told News Limited, temperatures were likely to top 50C.
“What happens after mid-century depends on how we get emissions under control but if we keep burning fossil fuels ... that means really, really excessive heat during extreme weather - into the 50s,” Professor Stefen, a climate researcher at Canberra's Australian National University said.
Currently the highest temperature ever recorded in Australia was 50.7C in Oodnadatta South Australia in 1960.
In 2009, an infamous heatwave saw Victoria swelter for 12 days over 43C, sparking tragic and destructive bushfires.
On Sunday the mercury rose to 40C in Perth, but it’s not over yet: temperatures are predicted to hit 42C today and tomorrow.
It’s predicted heatwaves will increase in frequency across the country.
The Western Australian State Emergency Management Plan states that ‘extreme heat events are likely to become increasingly common’.
'Associated with these events is the projected increase in the number of heat related deaths and consequential impacts on community, infrastructure and services,' it says.
