By Jo Nova
Despite the news headlines about the hottest ever heatwave in Victoria this week — old Australian newspapers are mysteriously full of reports of hotter temperatures. Consider, for example January 1932.
Photo: Jo Nova
The town called Ouyen reached 47.5 °C this week — the “hottest temperature ever recorded” we’re told, but 94 years ago it was reported to be 124 °F (51.1 °C). Not far away Mildura reached 123 °F (50.6 °C) and to the south, Hopetoun reached 114 °F (45.6 °C).
You might wonder if these local stations were inaccurate or badly managed, but in New South Wales, Pooncarie recorded 121 °F (49.4 °C) in the shade at 2 pm, Wilcannia – 117 °F (47.2 °C) at the same time, Broken Hill reached 114 °F (45.6 °C), Menindee was 116 °F (46.7 °C), and Bourke – 116 °F (46.7 °C). The heat stretched across to Port Augusta which recorded – 119 °F (48.3 °C). Were they all crazy, or was it really hot?
You might also wonder if they were using non-standard thermometers or the wrong screens, or enclosures which might bias the measurements. Except the Bureau of Meteorology standardized official thermometers to Stevenson Screens around the turn of last century, and it was mostly finalized twenty years before these temperatures were recorded. And not only were blisteringly high temperatures recorded across vast distances– but then there are the birds. Lordy but the parrots and zebra finches fell from the skies in mass deaths due to the heat. As a kind of macabre proxy thermometer, we know the temperature crossed some kind of terrible threshhold when there were piles of dead birds “two feet high”, and stories of people hauling out thousands of dead birds from dams, including in one case, as many as 60,000 dead parrots.
Credit for this goes to Lance Pidgeon, (Siliggy) the volunteer who dug out all these old temperature recordings from National Archives 15 years ago and found stories about the mass bird deaths during that heat wave which he and Warwick Hughes published.
Unlike the BOM, none of us is paid by taxpayers and yet we managed to find these old records. But the BOM is paid nearly a million dollars a day to give Australians the truth the whole truth, and nothing but the truth and yet they don’t seem to be able to do a basic internet search? And even if we do the search for them, they still can’t find it.
It’s time the BOM stopped hiding Australia’s climatic history from Australians. In 1909, the town of Bourke had a Stephenson screen and they recorded 125F or 51.7°C.But the BOM deleted that record because it was measured on a Sunday. Given that modern thermometers are electronic, and prone to picking up one-second records, and interference from airport radar, in new small 60L screens, placed near hot tarmac, and then corrected with thermometers up to 1,500 kilometers away, it’s hard to imagine how thermometers in 1932 needed adjustment to correct anything, when they were probably far more accurate than todays errant batch.
In this case even if Victoria is somehow a tenth of a degree hotter now that it was in 1932 before China built 1,000 coal plants, it’s a big So What? Is this what we’re turning our economy inside out to change? Australia has always had extremely hot days.
The ABC receives a billion dollars a year to tell Australians the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Yet they serve up biased stories which are poorly researched and which coincidentally favor the political team most ABC journalists vote for.
Below, the sad story of the mass death of thousands of birds, where dams and wells for hundreds of miles were piled with dead birds…
A heatwave kills thousands of birds — this was climate change in 1932
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/59308062
So much for 94 years of climate change.
Related stories
- Forgotten: Historic hot temperatures recorded with detail and care in Adelaide
- Australia’s Angry Hot Summer was hot angry hype– satellites show it was average
- Mystery black-box method used to make *all new* Australian “hottest” ever records
- How well did that 50 degree forecast work out for the BOM?
- Eight reasons the Australian heatwave is not “climate change”
- Australia – was hot and is hot. So what? This is not an unusual heatwave
- Extreme heat in 1896: Panic stricken people fled the outback on special trains as hundreds die.
- Charles Sturt’s time: so hot that thermometers exploded. Was Australia’s hottest day in 1828? 53.9C!
- The Bureau of Meteorology finds Australia is still getting colder a century later
- Carnarvon “world’s hottest place yesterday” is barely any hotter than it was in 1896
To maintain their Narrative, the Climate Alarmists always have to ignore, delete or modify History.
They will stop at Nothing to keep the Alarmism and money flow going.
The money flow for them that is.
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Actual historical records are there to find, untouched by the BOM.
They cant delete this JR…
An article from the Mildura Cultivator – Sat 10 Feb 1906, Page 7
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/74847129?searchTerm=mildura%201906%20temperature
“The temperature records for December and January are tabulated.
The average maximum shade temperature for the 62 days was 98.3 degrees and the
average minimum shade temperature was 61 degrees.
The maximum sun temperature averaged 133 degrees for the same period.”
Remember- that was Mildura 120 years ago, before the masses were able to own and drive a “fossil” fueled car.
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If “their ABC” had a journalist they would know this. Maybe they should employ 1 or 2?
We all know GIGO…garbage in, garbage out
I think their ABC is GO no matter what the input is.
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Idealists have no interest in the facts regarding events
in history…they are inconvenient to the visionary narrative.
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Recently Professor Ian Plimer commented that Al Gore made a fortune from his climate warnings that have not eventuated
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Thanks again Jo for reminding us how much BS and nonsense these donkeys have been feeding us.
Here’s a list of Mildura’s 20 hottest days since their records started in the 19th century.
Of course the automatic second by second spikes are very handy in the 21st century.
https://www.extremeweatherwatch.com/cities/mildura/highest-temperatures
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The BOM’s publicly available data matches those temperatures and dates in that link. The numbers for 1906 are shown as quality controlled. Obviously before the 1910 standardised period the BOM has adopted. But it’s still an official quality controlled reading from a BOM instrument and clearly higher than the ABC’s claim.
https://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=122&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_startYear=1906&p_c=-1157536897&p_stn_num=076077
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Strop, have a look at the post I linked about the date Stevenson screens became common in Australia. It was actually occurring in the late 1800s. Most sites in SA were standardized by 1892. WA was 1897. QLD by 1889. Tas by 1895. NT by 1892. The slow states were NSW and Vic (probably because they were more established with older screen types). Those states were switching from 1887 to 1908.
My point is that though the BOM ignores records prior to 1910, many readings during the Federation Drought were done on Stevenson screens.
https://joannenova.com.au/2015/02/the-mysterious-bom-disinterest-in-hot-historic-australian-stevenson-screen-temperatures/
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Yes. Wasn’t trying to imply the 1906 wasn’t a standardised or Stevenson screen measurement, as it is classified as a quality controlled official reading. Was just noting it is before the BOM’s date of what they exclude and classify as the standardised period. A “standard” they continue to play with and manipulate.
The station was established in 1889 when Stevenson screens were available and there’s no mention of a change of screen at the site. Although data is seemingly incomplete.
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Sir Charles Todd established the first weather observatory in Australia in 1860. This included Glaisher screens and he initiated checks between them and Stevenson screens which lasted for 36 years (and on the same site). Any differences could easily be adjusted for by someone inclined to do so.
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Have none of you realised that this will all go away if you’d simply rush out & buy an EV, cover your roof in solar panels, fill your garage with batteries & sing songs of praise dedicated to Chris Bowen!
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The left earnestly believe they are doing the right thing. It’s a moral code for them, they are right because they are right because they are right. They are impossible to argue with. The only thing that will teach them is when they are so utterly wrong that the pain that wrongness brings is intolerable and they THINK. Things will get much worse for us who are watching History repeat before enough of them hurt enough. I have little in the way of hope.
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Melbourne is much cooler than thirty years ago. Then I counted only three January days under 30C. And February was much hotter in the 1960s, 70s. The bitumen footpaths would melt and shift under your feet in a time before airconditioning.
And what happened before 1909 when the BOM started? Perhaps the BOM could take the time to digitize all those beautifully and very responsibly kept handwritten records? Otherwise we are only talking about a century, not all time.
The view used to be that a record was not undexpected. After all in the first year after Melbourne became a city in 1837, every measurement was a record for the city! Records were interesting as our knowledge of Melbourne’s highs and lows, temperature, wind, rainfall, insolation, humidity. Floods and droughts. Weather and so called Climate became clearer.
It was only after footballer and tobacco heir, non scientist Al Gore decided he knew more about the planet than records told that people decided he was a Climate God. Master of Climates across the world. A visionary. Aided by James Hansen, an expert on the Climate of Venus where the atmosphere is 98% CO2(not 0.042%) and a year(225 earth days) is almost the same as a day(243 earth days), so sun baking right next to the sun. But Hansen blames CO2 for the heat without telling the public the full story. Where’s the fame in that?
And it is not clear that the very idea of a single averaged ‘world temperature’ is useful or significant or that records of such an imagined temperature spanning the entire surface of the planet and over thousands of years are accurate, let alone to a tiny fraction of a degree. Who said that temperatures could not go down in one place and up in another?
Invented, projected, imagined, predicted data is not the same as real data. So we have a world theory based almost entirely on imagined or projected, not measured historical data. And on this theory politicians are taxing us and shutting down whole industries legally, while ‘developing’ third world countries like China have no such restrictions.
If anyone believes Man made CO2 driven Climate Change is real, I would love them to prove without question that humans can change or have changed world CO2 levels. Slight correlation is not causation.
And one hot day in one city in one tiny part of the world does not change the climate of the country or imply the climates of the whole planet. It is like winning a game of pin the tail on a donkey in one pub in one city in one state in one country on a single day. Not a question of science and not a proof of anything. But the BOM knows that.
It’s a game about money and power. Electrical power in particular, something which did not exist just 125 years ago when Australia and the world ran on coal and gas. And Australia was in the grip of the scorching decade of the Federation drought. But the BOM knows that too.
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can you link to the data?
And it is good that they have improved bitumen’s heat tolerance.
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Data? No, I just remember it as a broadcast and frankly self evident fact at the time.
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So I choose not to believe you
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It’s your choice if you wish to to bury your head in the sand.
Or you could do some independent research and publish it.
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I’m burying my head in the sand by trusting actual data?
.
[Can’t believe I’m here supporting Gee Aye 😉 , but the data for Melb max temps justifies their disbelief. Jan 1974 is seemingly the highest number of days above 30 deg in a January, and it’s only 17. The days below 30 are well below. So far below it’s beyond the BOM’s possible adjustments making any notable difference to the count. You can toggle other years in the below link, and using the “show in table” toggle can choose days above 30. It will shade them for easy detection. – Raquel]
https://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=122&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_startYear=1974&p_c=-1481638320&p_stn_num=086071
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Thirty years ago was 1996. TdeF may be remembering the summer of 1997 when the average daily max for Melbourne in February was 30C.
https://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=122&p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_startYear=1997&p_c=-1481638320&p_stn_num=086071
There were a string of hot Februarys in the late 1990s. https://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_display_type=dataGraph&p_stn_num=086071&p_nccObsCode=36&p_month=02
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He wrote January for his days above 30.
(Only 14 days above 30 in that February)
He also implied that the February was hotter in the 60s and 70s which your graph clearly refutes – though some years in that period were warmer than some in the last decade but the average is warmer recently.
I just wish posters would stop asserting their lived memory as being superior to any collected data.
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Who cares? You can believe whatever you want. I remember it because I used to take my four sons to the nearby beach every day. It was a news item at the time and lived experience. I wonder why you bother commenting.
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Why do you resist science?
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And in the big picture, the hottest Melbourne January recorded in a Stevenson screen (and with minimal urban heat island effects, and no electronic interference) was in 1908 when the monthly average was 31.0 and one day hit 44.2C. All before skyscrapers, millions of cars and people and gigatons of CO2 were added.
https://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_display_type=dailyDataFile&p_nccObsCode=122&p_stn_num=086071&p_c=-1481638320&p_startYear=1908
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OK.
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I read old newspaper records (Trove) about the NSW Hunter Region and that early settlers along the Hunter River (Port of Newcastle on the coast) were told by local Aborigines about a time when the Hunter River dried up above the tidal high water limit and that the local people had moved into the hills where spring water was available.
And another time the Hunter River in flood well exceeded the depths experienced since the Hunter District was settled by colonials.
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You raise an important matter WRT “global temperature.” To me it is a meaningless parameter. Consider that we are on a continually spinning spheroid with surface instruments located at varying spacing and without universal (global) coverage. To extrapolate measurements over vast areas is meaningless.
Of course we have satellite measurements, however these measure “layers” based on infrared radiation. Again there is not enough coverage to objectively measure a “global snapshot”.
In the mining industry there are rules and limitations on the use of “data” gathered under less-than-ideal conditions. No-one would finance a project based on flakey data akin to global temperature measurements.
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Hi Stanley. To quote NASA “ Ground thermometers are considered more accurate than satellite measurements when it comes to tracking temperature, and here’s why:
Satellites don’t directly measure temperature or the surface where people live. Instead, they measure the brightness of Earth’s atmosphere. Scientists then use computer models to convert this brightness data into temperature information.
To make matters more challenging, scientists gather brightness data from more than 16 different satellites. Think of it like receiving a box of puzzle pieces without a picture to guide you on how to complete the puzzle. Experts face a similar puzzle-solving task as they work with data from satellites that were launched in different decades since 1978. They must figure out how all these pieces fit together to create a coherent picture of Earth’s temperature.
Satellites measure the brightness of Earth’s atmosphere at various altitudes. For instance, they capture data from the layer of air closest to where people live, roughly the height where birds and airplanes fly. Scientists then combine and analyze these measurements, extending to about 23,000 feet (approximately 7,000 meters) in the atmosphere.
In summary, while satellites provide valuable information about Earth’s temperature, ground thermometers are considered more reliable because they directly measure the temperature where people reside. Satellite data require complex processing and modeling to convert brightness measurements into temperature readings, making ground thermometers a more direct and accurate source of temperature information for us.” https://science.nasa.gov/climate-change/faq/which-measurement-is-more-accurate-taking-earths-surface-temperature-from-the-ground-or-from-space/
https://skepticalscience.com/print.php?r=466. “What The Science Says: Satellites don’t measure temperatures, and the uncertainty in the trend is five times as large as that in the global surface temperature record.”
So, satellites? Very expensive toys for the boys.
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And the extraordinary analysis by Prof Carl Otto Weiss and his team using real thermometers in six European cities over the entire period of the industrial revolution (which of course was in Europe and nowhere else) and shows a very different graph of temperatures than the ‘world’ average. And a picture which easily correlates with all the anecdotal and incidental reporting of the time and even predicts the observed 2010-25 peak. Not the popular ‘world average’ temperature in which the vast proportion of points must be derived and cannot be proven or verified.
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Sorry Stanley, accidental red thumb.
Fat fingers, shaky hands, piddling little cellphone screen.
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Stanley,
But in many cases in Geochemistry, it is possible to return to a sample point to replicate data, especially data suspected of being wrong on the first pass. This gives the overall credibility of geochemical data an advantage over weather data.
In a broad sense, however, the scientific application of quality control procedures has, in my fairly wide experience, been much more intense with geochem data than with weather data.
It was known from when I got involved with some of the first Australian geochem data gathering in 1963 around Ravenswood Qld and Bathurst NSW, that it was more efficient to incorporate a lot of replication of data from the start. It lowered the amount and cost of having to sample again.
In contrast, our BOM has been unscientific from its refusal to release details of quality control exercises that matter. A significant example is data from overlap studies where multiple screen/thermometer systems are used in essentially the same locations over periods of years. There is seriously limited public access to data, for example, when major instrument changes were made, like liquid-in-glass thermometers replaced by electronic sensors, and when standard screen volumes went from large to small.
Scientists with skill and interest in quality control have to adopt the lamentable assumption that preventing the release of such data is an attempt to cover up data so poor that the basic hopes for adequately useful data were not achieved in practise, so a narrative of deceit has to be used.
Several Australian scientists have been refused data. DrJennifer Marohasy is one example. Jo Nova has kept readers on the trail. I have been been rebutted by BOM who refused to discuss some quality control unless my studies were presented to them as peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals. Other readers here are on the list because the alleged cover-ups have lasted 40 years.
Our governments should be involved in dismissing poor science, not funding it for decades.
Geoff S
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From one rock-kicker to another, many good points. Here’s another quandary: in my early days as a field geo we were aghast to learn that the “tracer” who plotted our geochem results was dyslexic…. We had spent a year following up anomalies when, in fact, they were ghosts! I wonder how many thermometer readings were incorrectly transcribed!
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I think our memories get clouded by memorable events. We remember it being hot when we were kids because we usually didn’t have air con at home, car, or at school. Plus we were outside running around, rather than indoors in air con like today. We used to avoid getting the bitumen on our bike tyres, from patches that had gone soft/liquified.
The last few years in Melbourne there has been a lull in hitting 40 degrees. But typically we only get 2 per summer, varying from 0 to 4, but usually 1 to 3.
The BOM records for Melbourne (CBD area) do not resemble your impression. I know the BOM has modified data in some instances. But even if they have artificially dropped past temperatures by a huge 2 degrees (as an example) and we add 2 degrees to their data, there’s still plenty of days (Jan or Feb) under 30 deg from 30+ years ago.
Some parts of broader Melbourne can vary by degrees. If you’re basing it off some reliably recorded data then that would be interesting. Even as a home setup that ensures some accuracy. As opposed to a thermometer randomly nailed to a porch post under a tin roof.
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I looked it up 1974 and 2021 had 17 days over 30 for Melbourne.
Also, when challenged, you shifted from “I counted” (wrongly as it turns out), to ” It was a news item at the time”.
Imagine if science was done by consulting people’s memories for data.
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Excellent article. Whenever I hear or see the breathless words ‘Hottest day for 50 years’ in the media, I always have to conclude, ‘So you’re telling me there was a hotter day 50 years ago’.
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Ask when did the records begin.
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The thermometer was invented just 300 years ago. All records have been set since.
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And man made CO2 driven Global Warming was invented just 38 years ago, announced in Congress on 30th June 1988. I wonder what they are thinking with half of the US today buried in deep snow and roads covered in ice? Plus massive snow falls right across Russia. Perhaps it shows that the UN has finally stopped Global Warming? Or that, as the infamous Simon tells us, increased snow is due to Global Warming with increased evaporation. An absolute classic of perverted logic typical of The Science.
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Congress invented global warming?
The infamous Simon knows that global warming does not mean a warm globe everywhere all the time. Sort of like acidifying means lowering pH without meaning something is actually an acid. You wouldn’t be guilty of using both those red herrings would you?
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Waffle, sophism. Reducing pH is not acidifying. Spending is not bankrupting. And ocean ph is around 8 which is actually fresh tap water with salt. Talk of acid is absurd.
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I was assured by a CSIRO meteorologist in Canberra, in the last week of 1986, that atmospheric CO2 levels had reached runaway greenhouse levels in March of that year, and that we were all doomed.
I’m still waiting for the runaway greenhouse, or for that matter, any of their other “we’re all gonna fry” predictions, to happen.
As someone who trained as an applied scientist and teacher my reaction to their 40 years of failed predictions is that their theory is a bust.
If your models keep failing, you don’t adjust your data, you adjust your models. If they still keep failing then the theory they are trying to test or describe is wrong.
Simple as that.
As a “denier” I don’t have to do anything else except point out the fact that they are failing. I’m not the one trying to prove a theory.
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The fundamental proposition is that humans affect CO2 levels. That is completely unproven. As for whether a 50% increase in CO2 levels over 250 years affect anything else, that is conjecture. And the likelihood that there is a sudden explosion in effects speaks of a system with very few degrees of freedom, which is not true. Nothing about the failure is unexpected. It was unproven wild conjecture in 1988.
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I don’t know how nature ever survived until we were able to start protecting it.
Creating us, so that we may commence the previously lacking proper stewardship of carbon, is clearly the best idea nature ever had.
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Jennifer Marohasy comments about BoM misinformation about their measurement methods, mercury vs digital thermometry.
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The average daily sunlight over the Southern Hemisphere from Sep equinox to Dec solstice in 2025 was 2W/m^2 higher than in 1931. So summer Jan 2026 would have been warmer than summer Jan 1932 without the additional atmospheric moisture we have over Australia today.
The SH heating will be on a downward trend from 2025 till 2028 before reaching similar level to 2025 in 2033 and 2025 will be marginally eclipsed in 2037. So austral summer of 2037/38 to be a warm one.
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Really?
Where do those figures come from?
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This parrot is no more…
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As is repeated incessantly from on high:
Scientists say: climate change makes heatwaves n% more likely.
Or if run through a filter to de-1984 toxic propaganda into English it reads:
News Flash: weather makes weather more weathery.
Thanks Jo for your links to ‘Related stories’, a veritable gold mine (and/or a time warp) reminding those of us who still possess a functioning brain – the more things change, the more they stay the same.
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The BOM is an aBOMination.
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… and unlike nearly 100 years ago, present day Australians have access to home air conditioning, home refrigerators/freezers to make sure their food doesn’t spoil in the heat, running water to keep them hydrated and flush their bodily waste to water treatment plants miles away from their home, etc.
I don’t know who the wealthiest person in Australia was back in 1932, but I’m pretty sure he was sweating his balls off in the summers, eating salted meats to avoid getting food poisoning, crapping in a hole in the ground in his back yard (or in a covered pot stored under his bed), and would be green with envy over the comfort afforded to even relatively lower-income Australians in the 21st century.
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“I don’t know who the wealthiest person in Australia was back in 1932,”
I would take a guess at Sir Sydney Kidman, and yes all of your above description would be right. Riding a horse all over the central desert areas, summer, winter, year in year out.
No complaining back in those days!
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Point of interest Sambar, My Great Uncle bought a property off Kidman in the 1890’s called “Elverston” Wyandra area Western Queensland. The interesting thing is that it was one of the very few Freehold properties that Kidman held as his really large holdings were Leasehold. Interesting family tales handed down over the years about “the old days”. Unfortunately with the modern worlds priorities my grand kids interest are far removed from such matters as lived history.
Peter Moody trainer of Black Caviar comes from Wyandra.
Regards
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Yes, I think the stories from those days are legion. A friend of my father when young was tasked with taking a herd of cattle to a railhead either in Hawker or Quorn (SA). All well and good. Cattle loaded. Driver of the train? Inebriated. So cattle drover decides to take the train himself. He was a remarkable individual displayed on numerous occasions throughout his life. Train underway, all well and good. The approach to Kapunda brought another question to mind: how to stop the train. A little trial and error. Success. Cattle unloaded. Return to base, so to speak.
In retirement he wrote an autobiography. Showed it to his lawyer. Nixed the lot, pretty much; not because it was false, but libel has little or nothing to do with truth. Shame.
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Worked as a fettler on the Adelaide to Alice Springs railway line back in the sixties, no shade as the track was required to be cleared for a couple of chains either side, bent rails were a common occurrence, wooden handled tools were to hot to touch without gloves, metal just burned you quickly and in a couple if instances quite severely. The only cool drink during the day was a swig from a water bag, so cooler than the atmosphere but not a “cold” drink by any means. Some of the gang didn’t even wear a hat let alone any protective clothing. The blue singlet was fashion de jour for many. Sun tans that rendered people as indigenous as anything, and old gnarled men that looked ancient in their early forties.
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More people should spend their days outside with no air conditioning or even shade inside buildings and get to experience real weather conditions?
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The rich guy would have had a refrigerator and a plumbed toilet. He would have a well shaded thick walled house with shutters. It wouldn’t be too bad
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Plumbed to where, were there sewage treatment plants in 1926.
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Septic tank
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Odd to change the date but yes Melbourne’s was established in 1897 and Sydney well before then for example. Not sure why you are conflating having a working treatment system with plumbed toilets.
plumbed to where? Out to sea or onto a farm.
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The liars and con merchants will ignore data right up to the present day, even when we’ve seen the collapse of deaths from extreme weather events since the 1960s.
And death rates from extreme weather events have dropped by at least 98% since the 1920s.
Just 2 billion at risk then and over 8.2 billion at risk today and yet last year recorded the lowest number of deaths ever.
Here’s the kicker the GLOBAL extreme temperature death rates for 2025 were 0.00 and all the other extreme weather events were 0.01 deaths per 100,000, except for floods death rates that were 0.04 per 100 K.
Again, we are living in the safest period in Human history and yet the liars and con merchants continue to ignore the data.
Why is it so?
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Here’s the link to GLOBAL extreme weather death rates since 1900 and note that deaths since the 1960s are very low and the lowest in 2025.
Thanks to OWI Data for telling us the truth. But why are the MSM, so called scientists, Pollies etc ignoring the data?
Anyone can find the data in 5 minutes, so what’s their problem?
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/natural-disaster-death-rates?country=Flood~Extreme+weather~Wildfire~Drought~Extreme+temperature
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Speaking of “death rates” there was at least two doctors on the tele talking about how heat kills so many people, and the usual advise that used to be taken for granted.
I have no idea how to research death rates over this last week, but it would be interesting to see how significant a spike occurred, if indeed it did.
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It’s the same with Floods when a couple of years ago Jo reported on the Gundagi and Hawkesbury River floods of over 100 years ago being record known floods at the time. And they are still the record known floods now.
And the Article showed the Newspaper Reports of the day.
Then there are the Victorian Bush Fires of 1939 and the Royal Commission Report. Rarely quoted by anyone these Alarmist days.
The BOM and the Climate Alarmists simply ignore the History.
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One of the temperature records set in this weeks heat was recorded at Hopetoun. But that recording station is relatively new. It was moved to the Hopetoun airport in 2005. So, it’s data can’t be compared to old data and its location at the airport, which is close to tarmac means it probably records hotter anyway.
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Here are the official temps for Hopetoun. The highest temp recorded was 48.3C at 3:10pm. Then it dropped 0.7C in one minute. Somewhere around there it jumped half a degree to 48.9, but it wasn’t flagged.
27/04:30pm 47.8
27/04:00pm 47.1
27/03:30pm 46.9
27/03:27pm 47.9
27/03:12pm 47.7
27/03:11pm 47.6
27/03:10pm 48.3
27/03:00pm 47.5
27/02:34pm 46.1
27/02:30pm 47.2
27/02:03pm 46.6
27/02:00pm 45.9
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Having looked at Hopetoun’s recent temps it would not be a heatwave under the BoM’s definition (although I must admit there is a bit of ‘wriggle room’ with the use of the word ‘unusually’).
BoM defines a heatwave as 3 or more days of unusually high maximum and minimum temperatures for a specific location. It requires both hot days and nights, as high overnight temperatures prevent body recovery.
If you check the temps, there are not 3 consecutive days of unusually max/min temps unless you think +3.7C for a minimum or +4.2C for a max is ‘unusually high’.
https://www.weatherzone.com.au/station/SITE/77010/daily-summaries
BTW, it would be a heatwave if the old unofficial definition of 5 consecutive days of +5.0 was used.
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A heatwave started in far-western NSW in 1896 (17–20 January 1896), causing 47 deaths in Bourke alone. Temps at Bourke were above 45˚C for 13 days in a row. The January 1896 heatwave was one of Australia’s worst, causing hundreds of deaths across multiple states. Now, that’s a heatwave.
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Yes – and 22 days over 40C to give a mean max temp of 43.4C – Still the highest. There was also 17 days over 40C in Jan 1939.
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the hottest decade in the Usa is the 1930″s
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Great summary again Jo, all I can say is ;
I think the heat has got to them !!.
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For those wondering how accurate mercury in glass thermometers could be, in James Prescott Joule’s classic 1849/1850 paper On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society he cited an accuracy with specialised apparatus of 1/100F and “eyeballing” within the graduations 1/200F.
rstl.1850.0004.pdf https://share.google/o3d1BLLRcjaA1PyKb
Weather measurements didn’t have to be nearly so accurate but the point is that accurate temperature measurements were possible then and for a considerable time before.
Even given the Stevenson Screen was not introduced until 1864, standardised 1884, earlier temperature measurements should not be completely dismissed, especially those ones that don’t fit the Official Narrative.
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Today we are experiencing bushfires in Victoria and yet Aussies have the lowest death rates from fires and burns in the world.
This only takes 5 minutes online and death rates have fallen on every continent since 1980.
Wealthy countries have the lowest death rates and yet Africa is also improving and they’ve increased their population by 100s of millions today.
Thanks again to OWI Data for telling us the truth.
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/fire-death-rates?tab=line&country=OWID_WRL~OWID_LIC~OWID_HIC~OWID_UMC~OWID_LMC~AUS~African+Region+%28WHO%29
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And we wouldn’t have so many fires at all had not fuel reduction burns been banned or highly restricted.
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And arson is probably the biggest problem.
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David you’re right on the money as usual, but trying to convince the far left loonies to clean up our bush is like trying to talk to a strainer post.
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During the bushfires at the end of 2019 I was speaking to the Mayor about fuel reduction burning and the traditional seasonal burning by patchwork areas practised by the Australian Aborigines, and again being carried out in WA and NT using Aboriginal Rangers. The Snowy Mountains high country settlers who grazed their cattle there during warmer months followed the same or similar precautions against wild fires when leaving every year by setting fires along their travel routes.
I have been to various art galleries and viewed early colonial day paintings of the landscape and that there were with the exception of certain difficult to access areas an almost park like countryside with clumps of trees and native grasslands in between. During the early years of settlement after establishing the Colony of New South Wales from Sydney Town, Sydney Cove, Port Jackson Harbour cattle went missing and settlers assumed they were stolen but after a while explorers in the now Camden District discovered the herd grazing on native grassland and with nearby water supplies.
The Mayor told me that local elders had been discussing season burning with him.
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Popular as One Nation and Pauline Hanson appear to be, and with growing support according to polling, the fact remains that ON has only one MP in the Federal Government House of Representatives, former National Barnaby Joyce. They do have several in the Senate and it is possible that they will gain more Senators at the 2028 election.
However, ON would need a miracle of wide support to get enough candidates elected for House of Representatives to be a real threat, apart from being influential via the Senate.
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Those that are voting for the Libs will need a miracle for them to gain power.
They have done nothing to convince me to return to the fold.
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In fact African population has increased by 1.1 billion today since 1980. See UN data.
So even our poorest continent can prove that their dangerous CC BS is a lie and a myth.
Africa’s life expectancy was just 36 years in 1950 ( pop then 227 million) and is 64 years in 2025 and population today over 1.5 billion.
Just look up the UN data.
https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/afr/africa/population
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That bird thing is seriously weird. Not something I’ve heard reported in my lifetime. Certainly heard plenty of comments or jokes about it, but never any solid reports recently. It’s one of those subjects you can ask AI to assist with. So, I asked the Grokmaster. Here’s part of the reply :-
“Notable real-world examples (of mass bird deaths ) include:
– India (2022 heatwave) — In Gujarat and other areas with temperatures >45°C, rescuers reported picking up dozens of dehydrated and exhausted birds (including parakeets and other species) that were dropping from the sky or trees daily.
– UK (2022 record heat ~40°C) — Reports of birds “falling out of the sky” and wildlife rescue centers overwhelmed with overheated birds.
– Australia — Extreme heat events (e.g., 45°C+ periods) have caused birds to drop from trees or die en masse in some arid regions.
– Scientific studies also warn that climate-driven extreme heat (especially with humidity) increases risks of mass avian mortality events, particularly for small birds in hot climates.
These are not everyday occurrences in “abnormally hot” weather for most places (like a typical summer day in the 90s°F / 32–37°C). They’re tied to exceptional, prolonged extremes where birds can’t thermoregulate effectively or find water/shade.
Mass die-offs from heat are more often linked to marine heatwaves affecting seabirds (e.g., starvation after “the Blob” event killed millions of murres in Alaska) or specific lethal heat + humidity combos, rather than land birds routinely plummeting from the sky.
So in short: It’s rare but real in brutal heatwaves, not a standard thing when it’s just “abnormally hot.” Providing water sources (like bird baths) can genuinely help local birds survive those dangerous spikes.”
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Ross,
The mass bird deaths seem to indicate a level of heat that should be recorded and contrasted with instrumental thermometry.
Another such ‘independent’ observation at the other extreme is the number of days with frost. This could be a more simple indicator of changes in weather than thermometry and less affected by human interpretation. Maybe that is why it is rarely seen by the public. Geoff S
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Could it be that their ABC has stepped a little to the right as they begin to see the mess their socialist agenda has created. Maybe One Nation’s momentum has them worried. Can you imagine Pauline exacting her revenge on these left wing zealots.
There is some acknowledgement that Trump was right on lots of things. He now gets referred to as President Trump. Their US reporter actually stated that President Trump was a smart politician in talking about sending border Tom into Minneapolis. Same guy Trump berated for asking about his personal finances when he was working on the Gaza deal..
I saw a couple of ABC reports on hot weather in Victoria yesterday and none of the reporters mentioned Climate Change™. One reporter interviewed a few in a pub and they were all very happy and not overly impressed by claimed 0.1C increase in temperature over the last record.
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No
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Once listened to the ABC radio a lot. I always found that the political bias of segments was more influenced by the host and probably his/ hers producer. But is it moving to the right? Dunno. I would have to start listening again and my blood pressure would suffer.
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So what would the computer model warming trend be today if BoM had used all historical data records from 1788 to whatever the year the modelling now includes as latest?
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But! But! I’m sure that ‘The Climate Council’ will deny those old claims as being political propaganda manufactured to deny the truth about the present unprecedented weather.
And, who would believe an officer of ‘the First Fleet’ with his records from back then. When you check those out, it is glaringly obvious that it can’t be true! After all there where no ‘carbon [sic] emissions’ back then.
We must rely on ‘the science’ you know … and Professor Timothy Flannery will endorse that, no doubt!
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The whole idea of ‘homogenisation’ the temperature record, resulting in adjusted temperatures of the past is essentially saying that the observers of the past were incompetent amateurs. If you as climate scientist believe that then you have joined the ranks of quacks and become a laughing stock.
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Australia, always was, always will be…. a hot country.
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Trouble is with the ABC’s web sites is they don’t allow comments so you cannot counter their “news” stories with some hard truths. You could of course email them and ask for a correction, but then that would be like, “the cheque is in the mail”.
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At least 60,000 parrots did die,
In 1932 they fell from the sky,
Because of recorded high heat,
Which modern temperatures do not beat,
At Alice Springs all their bodies piled high.
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Longreach a few summers ago, 150⁰C. Evaporative cooling not great but better than none at all, and beat this, outside, a bloke making a batch of concrete. He did have a mixer though.
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The century celebration edition of the Kempsey NSW newspaper was given to me to read and I was not surprised to read about regular periods of severe drought, high rainfall and floods and severe heatwaves, including birds dropping from the sky from exhaustion.
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>Longreach… 150°C
You can get a Maillard reaction at 150°C.
Did your concreter and his mix start turning brown?
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I did once observe a landscape gardener spreading wood chips on a garden middle of the day on a very hot day in Queensland, I went outside to check on him and he was throwing wood chips off his shovel in all directions and staggering around, when I went to assist he was suffering heat stroke and had reached a point where he did not realise what he was doing.
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Some time ago on ABC radio national, I listened to a mathematician speaking about polar vortex over Australia and how it affected our weather. A Sept. 30/2025 article in the Conversation online explains details.
.
[I assume this is the article referred to 30 Sept.
https://theconversation.com/air-temperatures-over-antarctica-have-soared-35-c-above-average-what-does-this-unusual-event-mean-for-australia-265079
The author was interviewed on ABC RN 29/7/2024 (7 min)
Dr Martin Jucker, Senior Lecturer in Atmospheric Science with the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/radionational-drive/antarctica-sudden-warming-polar-vortex-australia-ozone/104156534
– Raquel]
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Might even be a solar flare contributing there somewhere too, including the Northern Hemisphere ‘catastrophic snowfalls’.
Meanwhile the Masters of the Universe have moved onto investing in AI instead of sun/wind.
That’s a financial flare we all should be highlighting at every opportunity.
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I’m living thru the ‘unprecedented weather extremes’, that I’ve experienced for a week sometime during summer in the Mallee for 45 years, just as I did prior to that in Port Augusta & Berri SA. Critical thinkers know we’re seeing the same gaslighting as the rest of the Marxist West.
We have many patients from the areas and towns mentioned above and the elderly ones cancelled appointments for the week as they needed to stay in Swan Hill for a couple of hours and were concerned about the screeching mainstream media headlines of 45 -47 (Weatherzone new purple catastrophic weather branding). We naturally agreed as many don’t stay hydrated, but the refreshing attitude of the under 70’s down to late teens was they are going from airconned homes to airconned vehicles to airconned business premises and back again. A few minutes in the outdoors in 2026 ISN’T the end of the world and as the records for the same day 94 years ago show, they coped au naturel.
One farmer mentioned that his old man pointed out that without fallow paddocks on average any more, the temperature is not only a degree or so ‘cooler’, your mother/wife doesn’t have to spend time rewashing clothes and shovelling dirt off the verandah from blackout dust storms. Just hang wet sheets over open doors and windows and catch the breeze!
Right around the country people have dealt like we do whether that hot week comes in December or February. A digital record for a tenth of a second in a coastal city where the change comes an hour later sells clicks, but must stop buying votes.
Our Federal National member has emailed a survey the Nationals are asking for feedback due to their split from the dying Liberals. If answering that survey is the only feedback you can give politicians, then make it honest, make loud and make in NOW. we can’t wait for the Marxists to set an election on their terms. Learn from the conservative candidates in the rest of the West and start the pressure now from the facts of their failure.
Thanks Jo for an excellent blog with scientific data and historical facts highlighting the political lies and their propaganda media.
40.4C at the moment with one day to go in the 8 day stretch. We’ll live, just as we did in the ‘unseasonally cooler’ summer last year.
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If anyone knows how to get rid of those big hot deserts on the middle of Australia with wind turbines and solar panels then they should step forward.
Wait a minute…..politicians claim they can change our latitude, anticyclone dominated weather systems and evaporation rates by legislation. Downwelling tropical air gone by 2050.
Mungo Man would be suitably impressed.
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Interesting article about how they get rid of snow in NYC
https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/incidents/nyc-rolls-out-huge-hot-tubs-to-melt-snow-after-whiteout-winter-storm/news-story/54ec3b3de229641eeaf242fdf5c42d3a
All electric of course with the new Mayor.
Weird how the writer calls them hot tubs but the puts “snow melters” (which they actually are, in quotes.
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