Angry Summer

Angry Summer
Dates	Early January – March 2013
Areas affected	Southern Queensland New South Wales Victoria Tasmania South Australia Western Australia

The Australian summer of 2012–2013, known as the Angry Summer or Extreme Summer, resulted in 123 weather records being broken over a 90-day period, including the hottest day ever recorded for Australia as a whole, the hottest January on record, the hottest summer average on record, and a record seven days in a row when the whole continent averaged above 39 °C. Single-day temperature records were broken in dozens of towns and cities, as well as single-day rainfall records, and several rivers flooded to new record highs.

In January 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology altered its weather forecasting chart's temperature scale to include a range, coloured purple, between 52° and 54 °C. The reporting of the heatwave in the Australian media attracted controversy in the scientific community, as very few articles cited a correlation between the event and climate change, which it was correlated with according to studies conducted by the University of Melbourne.

70% of Australia was affected by the heat wave which developed after a persistent pool of hot air sat over the centre of the continent. According to climatologist David Jones, the hot weather began in September 2012. Maximum temperatures in late 2012 were up to 1.6 °C above average. Average daily maximum temperatures were the highest between 2 and 8 January 2013. The length of the heatwave in outback Queensland was unusually long. In some areas of that state the overnight temperature remained in the mid thirties.

Central Australia experienced a lack of cloud cover due to low moisture levels during the hottest part of the year. This allowed the conditions to get hotter and hotter. A monsoon trough which usually allows conditions to cool did not eventuate.

New record temperatures were recorded in every state and the two territories of Australia. The hottest day on record for the whole of Australia was 7 January 2013, at 40.30 °C. In a 90-day period 123 record-breaking weather events were recorded. Both Sydney and Hobart recorded their hottest temperatures on record in January 2013. Sydney beat the January 1939 record of 45.3 °C (113.5 °F), recording 45.8 °C (114.4 °F) on January 18, while Hobart recorded 41.8 °C (107.2 °F) on January the 4th, beating its previous record by a whole degree and becoming the second hottest temperature ever recorded in the state of Tasmania. In addition to this, Canberra recorded its hottest January temperature of 42.0 °C (107.6 °F), while Adelaide reached 45.0 °C (113.0 °F), its second hottest temperature on record after the 45.7 °C (114.3 °F) of January 2009. The hottest temperature recorded during the course of the heatwave was 49.6 °C (121.3 °F) at Moomba in South Australia.

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