Australia experienced its hottest August on record, the country’s weather service announced today, with the temperature last month more than three degrees above the normal average.

Australia’s Met Office figures show last August was the warmest since records began in 1910. In many parts of the country the maximum minimum and maximum temperatures were the highest ever recorded.

Overall this year’s winter – which in Australia starts in June and ends in August – was the second warmest on record so far, after that of 2023.

Record temperatures across the country

The average temperature across Australia was 3.03°C above the normal average, the agency said.

Record temperatures were recorded from the east to the west coasts of the country. The thermometer at a military base on the northwest coast of Australia reached 41.6 °C, the highest temperature ever recorded in the winter season.

“Across much of the country, day and night temperatures were more than 10°C warmer than the average for the month of August,” the weather service said.

About 18% of the country is desert, and it’s common to be hot throughout the year in Australia’s milder climates.

But the latest data shows Australia’s average temperature is rising steadily, with climate change fueling bushfires, floods, droughts and more intense heat waves.

Climatologists have already predicted that 2024 will be the hottest year ever recorded on Earth.

High temperature records have been broken around the world, with record temperatures this week in Lapland – in northern Finland -, Shanghai and Japan, which experienced its hottest summer on record.