The highest temperature ever recorded in Australia is 50.7 °C (123.3 °F), which was recorded on 2 January 1960 at Oodnadatta, South Australia, and 13 January 2022 at Onslow, Western Australia. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Australia is −23.0 °C (−9.4 °F), at Charlotte Pass, New South Wales, on 29 June 1994.
For interest, Australia's highest official temperature is 50.7°C at Oodnadatta in South Australia on 2 January 1960 and the last 50 degree temperature in the country was 50.5°C at Mardie Station in Western Australia on 19 February 1998.
The hottest temperature ever recorded was 134 degrees (56.67 degrees Celsius) in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, said Randy Ceverny of the World Meteorological Organization, the body recognized as keeper of world records.
The summer of 2012–13 will go down as Australia's hottest on record, and January 2013 as the nation's hottest month. Mean temperatures for the summer were 1.11 °C above normal, 0.13 °C above the previous record set in 1997–98. High temperatures covered almost the entire country.
Southern Australia has recorded significant heat over the past week with maximum temperatures widely reaching in excess of 35C (95F), as well as more than 10C above the climatological average.
The lowest temperature on record in Australia was minus 23 degrees at Charlotte Pass, NSW on 29th June in 1994. The lowest in Tasmania was -13 degrees, which occurred at Tarraleah Village, Butlers Gorge and Shannon on the same day in late June during 1983.
Central Australia receives less than 250 mm (10 in) of annual rainfall. The highest maximum temperature recorded in the territory was 48.3 °C (118.9 °F) at Finke on 1 and 2 January 1960. The lowest minimum temperature was −7.5 °C (18.5 °F) at Alice Springs on 12 July 1976.
The warmest eight years have all been since 2015, with 2016, 2019 and 2020 constituting the top three. An exceptionally strong El Niño event occurred in 2016, which contributed to record global temperatures.
Evidence of warming in Australia
Australia's climate has warmed since national records began in 1910. Australia's average temperature has increased on average by 1.44 ± 0.24 °C since national records began in 1910. Since 1950, every decade has been warmer than the decade before.
However, there's been some dispute on that being the hottest day ever recorded. The Guinness World Record marked 134 degrees in that same spot back in 1913. The anticipation and the heat are both building but many will just have to wait and see what happens on Sunday.
Even after those first scorching millennia, however, the planet has often been much warmer than it is now. One of the warmest times was during the geologic period known as the Neoproterozoic, between 600 and 800 million years ago. Conditions were also frequently sweltering between 500 million and 250 million years ago.
The two hottest temperatures on record are the 134 degrees 1913 in Death Valley and 131 in Tunisia in July 1931. Burt, a weather historian for The Weather Company, finds fault with both of those measurements and lists 130 in July 2021 in Death Valley as his hottest recorded temperature on Earth.
A supernova is the hottest thing in the universe. The temperatures at the core during an explosion skyrocket up to 6000X the temperature of the sun's core.
The mobile-friendly MyClimate 2050 tool shows almost all areas across Australia will experience longer and hotter summers, with temperatures increasing by an average of 2.32°C.
1. Marble Bar, Western Australia. Marble Bar claims to be the hottest town in Australia. It holds the record for the highest average monthly maximum temperature, which is 41.5°C in December.
Is Australia hotter than India? India is closer to the equator as compared to Australia, and is therefore expected to be hotter. The average temperature in most of the interior regions of India is 90–104 °F. Whereas in Australia the average temperature in summer is 86 °F.
Three major economic centres are set to become uninhabitable by the end of the century, with global temperatures on track to warm by 2.7C. Darwin, Broome and Port Hedland are predicted to be pushed outside the “human climate niche” — that is, the temperature and humidity conditions in which humans can survive.
Australia could swing from three years of La Niña to hot and dry El Niño in 2023. Australia could swing from three years of above-average rainfall to one of the hottest, driest El Niño periods on record, as models show an increasing likelihood the climate driver may form in the Pacific in 2023.
2100: Either uninhabitable or beginning to repair
Over the coming two decades, extreme weather is set to disrupt society with increasingly severe bushfires, drought and storms. The good news is by the end of the century, living on Earth could actually be more pleasant than it is today.
Very hot. During this Mesozoic Era — from about 250 to 66 million years ago — the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere were around 16 times higher than now, creating a "greenhouse climate” with temperatures on average six to nine degrees warmer than today.
The Australian Bureau of Meteorology reported record-breaking temperatures, most above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), across South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria, and Queensland in February.
South Australia is the driest of the Australian states. Only about one-fifth of the area receives annual precipitation of more than 10 inches (250 mm), and less than half of that has more than 16 inches (400 mm).
“We want people to do so safely, not just from a Covid point of view, but remember, 40 degrees is a really hot day, so don't expose yourself to unnecessary risk.”