Heatwaving goodbye to third-hottest year on record

The sweltering end to December has set up 2018 to be Australia’s third-hottest year on record.

Isabella, 8, Luigi, 7, Clara, 4, and Pietro, 10, kick off the new year with a splash at Noosa Main Beach yesterday. Picture: Lachie Millard

The sweltering end to December has set up 2018 to be Australia’s third-hottest year on record, as families yesterday sought relief from the continuing heatwave conditions.

Drought conditions that crippled farming across large parts of most states also set records, with an “exceptional” September the country’s driest since records began more than 100 years ago.

According to a Bureau of Meteorology preliminary report on the country’s climate in 2018, maximum temperatures recorded last year also mean that nine of the 10 hottest years on record will have occurred since 2005, which the BOM said “is in line with long-term trends resulting from ­anthropogenic climate change”.

For most parts of the country, maximum daily temperatures were an average of 1C-2C higher than those recorded over the past 30 years.

The hottest temperature ­recorded in Australia in 2018 was 49.3C at Marble Bar in northwest WA on December 27.

However, many of the heat and drought records set during the year could be broken in 2019, with “very hot” heatwave conditions set for the first week of January.

“There’s still a lot of hot air through the centre of the country and especially NSW,” said BOM meteorologist Sarah Fitton.

She added that while temperatures might “slightly ease” by “a couple of degrees” for most cities from today, a further heatwave would be making its way across the country from tomorrow, with 41C expected in Adelaide.

“We’ll get another burst of heat coming across from the west, moving east across the country. It’ll affect Victoria and Tasmania on Friday, and by the weekend NSW will have the peak of that,” she said.

“For this time of the year, temperatures look to be 4-8C above averages across most of Australia.”

News of a warmer summer came as no surprise to Noosa beachgoers sweltering through 31C yesterday.

“I’ve never seen the beach as crowded as it is today. It’s such a hot day,” said Ruby Sillato of Noosa.

She was at the beach with her children, Luigi, 7, and Clara, 4, and their friends, Isabella, 8, and ­Pietro, 10.

Without airconditioning at home, Ms Sillato’s children were insistent the family cool down at the beach.

Ms Sillato said she had “definitely noticed it getting a lot drier throughout the year” in the region.