Summer season-like warmth is scorching the Southern Hemisphere — in winter

These are a few of the most excessive numbers in a month of extremes for the land down beneath, which has sweltered beneath a protracted winter warmth wave that threatens to interrupt the nation’s document for common winter temperatures — a document set simply final 12 months. In 2023, Australia’s common winter temperature was 1.53 levels C above the long-term common of 14.96° C from 1961 to 1990, and the very best since recordkeeping started in 1910.

Globally, common nighttime temperatures are growing even sooner than daytime temperatures, a phenomenon scientists name “uneven warming.” That nighttime warming is an enormous consider pushing the planet’s common temperature upward, contributing to its 14-month streak of record-breaking warmth (SN: 8/19/24).

Australia just isn’t the one area within the Southern Hemisphere that’s sweltering. Brazil’s huge Pantanal wetlands, bordering Bolivia and Paraguay, are on fireplace — actually — due to a one-two punch of extreme droughts and unseasonably heat temperatures. Raging megafires have burned over 700,000 hectares of the Pantanal this 12 months.

Winter has up to now introduced dry and gentle climate to the Pantanal. However that’s been altering. And in reality, the Southern Hemisphere has gotten more and more dry over the past twenty years, researchers reported in Science in 2023. The pure local weather phenomenon El Niño is one main contributor; local weather change might also be intensifying El Niño-linked rains and drought, notably within the Southern Hemisphere (SN: 7/19/23)

These hotter winters can have damaging impacts on meals safety, water provides and bug populations. Reader Judy Dobles requested concerning the impression of warmth on the power to develop meals. Hotter winters can change when crops germinate, and after they bear fruit. For example, in america, the place common winter temperatures are creeping upward too, that shift prompted the U.S. Division of Agriculture in 2023 to launch a brand new plant hardiness zone map, used to advocate what crops will thrive in sure areas and when greatest to plant them.

“How do growers (agriculture and horticulture) plan for future manufacturing in a altering local weather?” asks reader Brian Hesketh. Many efforts are beneath technique to breed heat-tolerant crops, comparable to an apple bred to thrive at temperatures as excessive as 40° C (104° F) (SN: 8/22/24).

Hotter winters may imply much less snowpack to feed rivers and recharge groundwater. And chilly climate helps maintain insect-borne ailments, comparable to dengue, in verify (SN: 8/26/24). 

As at all times, please maintain sending in your questions about Earth’s excessive local weather data. Thanks!