 There was some good rainfall in May, but it was not enough to break the drought. (ABC News) |  |
Climate report: record temperatures, not enough rain
As the Federal Government considers an emissions trading scheme to put the brakes on global warming, the latest figures suggest temperatures are still on the rise.
The warmest May on record in the eastern states of the country will be the subject of a special climate statement to be released by the Bureau of Meteorology on Monday.
There was some good rainfall in May, but it was not enough to break the drought.
The bureau's head of climate analysis, Dr David Jones, says Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania have just had their warmest May since records began.
He says temperatures in eastern states were typically two to three degrees above average.
Dr Jones says apart from Queensland, there was a distinct lack of cold days and nights.
"If you look at Victoria, for example, there has been almost no frost despite the fact here we are at the start of winter," he said.
"That's really almost an unheard of phenomena."
He also says there were fewer nights below freezing in Canberra.
"It's certainly very odd," he said.
"We've never got this late in the year without seeing a sub-zero minimum temperature."
He says the warmer temperatures are not restricted to the eastern states.
"The whole of Australia has had a very warm start to the year and at the moment we're running about a degree above average, which would make it the third warmest start to the year on record."
Dr Jones says the most notable feature of the weather has been the lack of strong frontal systems pushing cold weather onto Australia from the Great Southern Ocean.
He says the end of the El Nino system and climate change are to blame.
"A lack of cool weather, a lack of cold days has really been the driver, but if you take a broader perspective, it's pretty clear that the very high temperatures that we've seen are part of a long-term warming trend," he said.
Rainfall
The bureau says more rain is needed to replenish depleted river systems.
"Australia has seen a return to pretty good rainfall in the past few months," said Dr Jones.
"But one thing we haven't seen is a rebound in river conditions ... last year was so dry that the soils had dried right out, the springs had dried right out, so we need much better than average rainfall to get average run-off.
"Many parts of Australia have had a wetter than average Autumn, particularly parts of Victoria, South Australia, parts of western New South Wales, but unfortunately not nearly enough to break the back of this very long and very intense drought."
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