Wild and weird weather has hit Australia, with a combination of drought, storms, bushfires, snow and record low temperatures baffling a population usually heading for the beach at this time of year.
Icy winds shrieking up from the South Pole had Sydney residents shivering on the way to work on Thursday as the country’s most populous city recorded its coldest overnight November temperature in more than a century.
The mercury dropped to just 8,3°C, the lowest since November 1905, but with the wind-chill factor ”I think the temperature was around two degrees,” said Bureau of Meteorology weatherman Rob Webb.
The unseasonable chill in this Southern Hemisphere summer was caused by winds from the South Pole, forecasters said.
The lowest temperature recorded in New South Wales state, of which Sydney is the capital, was -4°C at Thredbo in the Snowy Mountains, where snow fell overnight.
Temperatures dropped to zero in parts of the Blue Mountains near Sydney, where fire fighters were battling two blazes burning out of control in the tinder-dry bush, fuelled by the strong winds.
To the north, in Queensland, storms carrying hail the size of cricket balls tore off roofs, smashed cars and brought down trees and powerlines, plunging more than 30 000 homes into darkness.
But the rain had made little difference to dam levels in the drought-hit state, water authority spokesperson Rob Drury said.
Parts of Australia are in the grip of the worst drought for more than a century, bringing fears of climate change to the forefront of political debate well before this week’s climatic oddities.
Prime Minister John Howard has recently publicly dropped his scepticism over the threat of global warming and announced a series of clean energy initiatives to reduce the greenhouse gases blamed for climate change.
Howard was offered wry congratulations by an announcer on Sydney radio on Thursday for his ability to so quickly switch the country from hot to cold.
But forecasters say that the weather should begin getting back to normal on Friday.
”After a frosty start it should back away to a more typical summer pattern with temperatures to average or even above average across New South Wales,” said Webb. ”It will be a pretty pleasant weekend in Sydney, that’s for sure.” – AFP
