Australia recorded record winter temperatures today, with the mercury hitting 41.6 degrees Celsius in a part of the northwest coast of the country, announced the meteorological service of Australia.

This temperature exceeds the previous record by 0.4 degrees Celsius and was recorded at the Yabby Sound camp at 15:37 local time, the same source said.

This is “the highest temperature for the month of August for the whole of Australia” and a “new record for maximum temperature for a winter month in Australia”, a spokesman for the country’s Bureau of Meteorology told AFP.

Although the record has been “provisionally confirmed”, scientists must verify that it is not the result of a local anomaly before it is officially entered into the record books.

The previous record of 41.2 degrees Celsius was set in August 2020 in West Roebuck (North West).

Winter in Australia lasts from June to August.

About 18% of the Australian land area is desert and very high temperatures are common throughout the year in the temperate zones.

Australia’s climate is affected by three weather patterns: temperature changes in the Indian Ocean, changes in a wind belt that moves between Australia and Antarctica, and changes in the Pacific weather patterns known as El Niño and La Nina.

Some combinations of these three weather phenomena can cause extremely hot, dry or very humid conditions in different parts of Australia.

Australia’s three main weather events will be affected by human-caused climate change, according to research by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

The Bureau of Meteorology estimates that “the combination of these major climate impacts and global warming” contributed to the winter of 2023 being Australia’s warmest on record.