ABC NEWS WATCH enjoyed the new year from the comfort of a pool side lounge chair in a distant land positioned just above the equator, so we missed the "
Extreme heat in southern Australia" that the ABC AM reported on the 3rd of January. Just as well as AM's
Peter Cave reported the story in the following manner:
"South Australia is sweltering with the hottest start to the year in more than a century." Glad I was sipping cool beer elsewhere. That must have been some heatwave (though based on the evidence some would have just called it summer)!
So hottest since at least 1912? Let's test the validity of that claim (made by the ABC); mindful that just one observation is all that is needed to disprove the claim.
Start the clock:
1. open Google
2. type "Heatwaves in South Australia"
4. Read the page (reprinted below)
5. Claim debunked.
Time taken: about 2 minutes.
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Temperatures above 40°C are common in the north of South Australia
in summer, but rarely for such a prolonged period as in the first half
of January 1979. The heatwave began on 31 December, and up until
15 January, maximum temperatures of at least 45°C were a daily
occurrence in the north of the state, at places such as Marree and
Oodnadatta.
Further north, at Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, the temperature
exceeded 40°C on 12 days, but did not go higher than 42°C, in part
because of the town's elevation (546m). The extreme heat reached
further south on several days: at Port Augusta the mercury topped 44°C
on 6 days, and at Broken Hill in NSW on 7 days. Adelaide did not have
many days of extreme heat, but 42°C on 3 January was the highest
temperature for 11 years.
Livestock and wild animals suffered. Kangaroos were found dead, and
100 cattle died on a train at Marree, despite the efforts of railway staff
to offload them (Around 1979 it was usual for 10 to 20 animals to die during
transport in hot weather). Hundreds of dead birds, including crows and
parrots, were found. A goods train was derailed at Immarna on the trans-
continental line, probably because the rails buckled in the heat.
A similar heatwave in January 1960 was not so sustained, because cool
changes brought relief, but temperatures exceeded 45°C in the north of the
State from 31 December to 3 January. On 2 January, Oodnadatta reached
a state record - and arguably an Australian record - of 50.7°C. The
minimum that day was 34.6°C. The temperature again reached the low 40s on
6-8 January, and on the 10th.
There were several deaths in the 1960 heat wave: five babies and eight
dults died, including five found dead beside an outback road. Other victims
were admitted to hospital with heat exhaustion, including 18 in Broken Hill.
However hospitals would have provided little relief, because few were
air-conditioned at that time.
http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/c20thc/temp3.htm
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The highest temperature recorded in the 2012 "heatwave" at Adelaide Airport (BOM station ID 23034):
31 December 2011: 34.6
1 January 2012: 39.8
2 January 2012: 39.7
3 January 2012: 31.5
That ABC claim again: "South Australia is sweltering with the hottest start to the year in more than a century." Seems there will be no halt to the climate mis-information this year.
See Also
H/T to Warwick
disHonesty and propaganda? surely not on our ABC
ReplyDeleteIt would be safe to say that their presenters are somewhat tetchy when it comes to any criticism of their output as well!
ReplyDeleteBut then, we continue to contribute (unwillingly in my case) to their very secretive salary regime through our taxes.
Everyone's ABC?! May have been decades ago. Certainly isn't now.