Climate change observations in Australia and NSW
Predicting the weather is tricky. It is even more difficult to estimate whether temperatures are truly increasing when rainfall and weather patterns vary so much from year to year. Despite this, however, scientists have found that annual average temperatures in Australia have increased by 0.9°C since 1950.1
This graph shows how the average temperature for Australia for each year is different from the average temperature between 1961 and 1990 ('temperature anomaly'). The black line shows the average temperatures over an 11 year period.
Source: Bureau of Meteorology 2008, Timeseries: Australian Climate Variability and Change. www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/reg/cli_chg/timeseries.cgi?variable=tmean®ion=aus&season=0112
The climate of NSW varies from north to south and from east to west. In fact the annual average daily summer maximum temperature varies from 30°C in the north-west down to 12°C in the high country in south-eastern NSW.
Far West of NSW - Broken Hill
Central Coast of NSW - Newcastle
Rainfall and temperature are important drivers of agriculture, fisheries and forestry production systems and the analysis of these variables can help understand current and future impacts of climate change.
Far West of NSW - Milparinka
Read more about the predicted changes to Australia's climate system.
Alpine plantation - Tumbarumba
Return to What is climate change?.
1CSIRO and Bureau of Meteorology, 'Climate Change in Australia'.
http://www.climatechangeinaustralia.gov.au