Australia records coldest April since 2015

Australia was an island of cold weather last month as a streak of global record heat continued.

Data released this week by the environmental non-governmental group Berkeley Earth showed that last month’s global average air temperature on Earth was 0.11 degrees above the average from 1850 to 1900. It was the hottest average April temperature on record, surpassing the previous record of 2020 by 0.14 degrees.

Last month continued a long streak of record global heat that has not been broken since June 2023, with April becoming the 11th consecutive month to set a new monthly record for average global temperature.

But amid this unprecedented global warming, Australia recorded its first cooler-than-average April in nine years.

The average air temperature over Australia in April was lower than the 1951-1980 average.

It was one of the few places on Earth that was cooler than average last month.

The cause of Australia’s cool spell during an otherwise record-warm month for Earth’s atmosphere was high pressure centered over southern Western Australia.

This condition causes southerly winds to bring cool air to Australia. When these high pressure systems are strong and large, southerly winds can be persistent and carry cool air across the continent.

So while many areas of the Earth experienced record heat last month, Australia was one of the few places that stayed cooler than normal thanks to a stagnant weather pattern.

Meteorologists say this is a good example of how periods of cold weather can mask the long-term warming trend of climate change.