Flannery’s Angry Summer Almost As Hot As 1903

By Paul Homewood

 

 

Walgett is a small town in New South Wales. It’s main claim to fame is the invention of the Wolseley Shearing Machine. It also has the dubious distinction of being the hottest place in NSW during the “record summer” just finished, when temperatures reached 48.5C.

 

http://www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/climate/extremes/monthly_extremes.cgi?period=%2Fcgi-bin%2Fclimate%2Fextremes%2Fmonthly_extremes.cgi&climtab=tmax_high&area=nsw&year=2013&mon=1

 

It may therefore come as a surprise to find out that it was even hotter there in 1903, when thermometers climbed to 49.2C.

 

http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=122&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_startYear=1903&p_c=-541341706&p_stn_num=052026

 

What makes the comparison even starker is that the weather station is now at the airport, within a few yards of a tarmac runway, as the Google Map below illustrates.

 

 

But I doubt whether you will hear any of this from Terry  Tim Flannery.

 

 

h/t Ian