Climate scientists warn Australia to brace for more extreme weather

According to the latest biennial State of the Climate report, Australia's average temperatures have now increased by 1.44 degrees since 1910, and last year was the hottest year on record. The country's sea levels have also risen 25 centimetres since 1880 - half of that since the 1970s - and are now expected to rise by another 3.5 centimetres per decade.

Coastal erosion is seen from the air at Terrigal Beach, on the NSW Central Coast, Saturday, May 16, 2015. (AAP Image/Darren Pateman) NO ARCHIVING Source: AAP

In Australia's already bushfire-prone southwest and southeast, conditions are getting drier, with rainfall in the cool season between April and October continuing to decline.

The Bureau of Meteorology's Climate Environmental Prediction Services manager Dr Karl Braganza says that combination and heat and dry is the perfect recipe for worsening bushfire seasons.

Research director of the CSIRO's Climate Science Centre Dr Jaci Brown says rising sea levels can be attributed to two things - melting ice caps and thermal expansion.

Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide were once increasing by 10 parts per million per century - but Dr Brown says they've increased by 23 parts per million in the last decade alone.

 

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