Thursday, March 1, 2012

SA hotter in 1960-ABC wrong again-Part 3

Just to recap. In an item on ABC's morning current Affairs show, AM, under the headline "Extreme heat in southern Australia" ABC Claimed "South Australia is sweltering with the hottest start to the year in more than a century."  We pointed out a number of times (Here and Here) that it was hotter in 1960. Given the implications of ABC's claim we thought it might be interesting to compare the front pages of the Sydney papers from 1960 and 2012. After all, if on January 1 and 2, 2012 South Australia was sweltering with the hottest start to the year in more than a century. It should probably have made the headlines.
Let's compare the front pages of the Sydney Morning Herald from January 3, 4 and 5, 2012, with those from 1960.
Here's 2012 in order left to right January 3, 4 and 5:

Nothing there about the extreme heat in SA, on any day on the front page, There was this online, and on the 4th a headline on page 7 that read "At last Summer steps ashore"

Let's now look at 1960. First here's the front page of the Sun Herald from Sunday January 3, 1960, along with page 4. The front page story screams "123 degree record. Searing heat grips inland areas" and "Girl 6 near death 119 degrees" (click to enlarge).
Below is the front page from the Sydney Morning Herald, Monday January 4, 1960-"Three babies, woman, man die in heat":
And finally, here's the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald from January 5, 1960-"Heatwave toll now seven":

In early January 1960 central Australia experienced such extreme heat that records were set (the temperature in Oodnadatta remains the Australian record), at least 7 people died and birds dropped out of the sky. Our basic analysis (see HERE)  indicates temperatures were higher over a greater area in 1960. It made the front page of the Fairfax press in Sydney on three consecutive days. In early January 2012, the editors of the Sydney Morning Herald felt that three pages of cricket news was far more important than ABC's "hottest start to the year in more than a century."

ABC News: They just make things up!

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