Think S’pore is Hot? A Town in Australia Just Recorded Temperature of 50.7°C

By
Sher Lin
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If you think Singapore is hot, think again; a remote town in Western Australia recorded a figure of 50.7°C.

A sky-rocketing figure, if we talk in terms of weather.

The Hottest Day in Over 60 Years

This record temperature was achieved by the coastal town of Onslow one fateful Thursday afternoon.

The state’s Bureau of Meteorology expressed its excitement in a Twitter post and announced in seeming exclamation “NEW Western Australia maximum temperature record and equal National temperature record!”

If you were wondering about the previous record, the last comparable temperature was an equivalent of 50.7°C recorded on 2 January 1960 at South Australia’s Oodnadatta Airport.

The Heat Could Persist

This was not a one-off event; global warming can make such temperatures commonplace, as warned by the country’s Climate Council.

Research director, Dr Martin Rice said the record was “part of a long term warming trend driven by the burning of coal, oil, and gas”.

Human activities generate heat-trapping gas that increases surface temperatures and influences weather patterns. In other words, many states could be following the footsteps of Onslow.

Extreme temperatures are already having a catastrophic effect on Australia. We all know of the deadly bushfire crisis back in 2020, where 11 million hectares of bush, forests, and parks have been burned across Australia. The worst-hit state, New South Wales, has seen the destruction of 2,000 houses, forcing thousands to seek shelter elsewhere.

Dr Rice mentioned that “heatwaves are the silent killer in Australia, and they cause more deaths than any other extreme weather events”. In Sydney and Melbourne, “there will be 50 degree summer days by 2030”.

I wonder if they’d still be excited.

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Climate Change Needs to be Tackled

Drastic weather pattern shifts are not only experienced by Australia; Singapore is not sparred either. On 4 June 2021, Singapore recorded its hottest day temperature of 35.5°C at Marina Barrage.

In the same month, the highest rainfall anomaly of 84% above average at Lim Chu Kang was recorded.

The mean sea level in the Straits of Singapore has also increased at the rate of 1.2 mm to 1.7mm from 1975 to 2009. As a low-lying island, rising sea levels pose an immediate threat to Singapore, according to the National Climate Change Secretariat of Singapore (NCCS).

We can all do our part to reduce the burning of fossil fuels. Some examples include eating green, taking public transport instead of private transport, and using LED bulbs instead of filament bulbs.

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Sher Lin
Email: [email protected]