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Continuing hot on the heels of the ‘Angry Summer’ of 2012/2013, Australians again endured record breaking extreme events this summer.
This report provides a summary of extreme weather conditions in the 2013/2014 summer, illuminating a continuing trend of hotter summers and more weather extremes in Australia.
FIVE KEY FINDINGS
- Heatwaves and hot days, drought and rainfall deficiency, and bushfires dominated the 2013/2014 summer.
- Climate change is already increasing the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events in Australia.
- Many of our largest population centres stand out as being at increased risk from extreme weather events, including heatwaves, drought and bushfires.
- The impacts of extreme weather events on people, property, communities and the environment are serious and costly.
- Limiting the increase in extreme weather activity requires urgent and deep reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases. The decisions we make this decade will largely determine the severity of climate change and its influence on extreme events for our grandchildren. This is the critical decade.