Last year was Australia’s second-hottest on record going back to 1910 and the warmest for night-time temperatures, according to official Bureau of Meteorology data.
The average temperature across the country in 2024 was 1.46C above the long-term average, calculated from 1961 to 1990, and was second behind the 1.51C record set in 2019.
Night-time temperatures were 1.43C higher than the average, the data showed, easily beating the 1.27C mark set in 1998. For maximum temperatures, 2024 was the fourth-hottest.
Climate scientists blamed the continued rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere for driving the bulk of the temperature increases.
“This is becoming routine now,” said Prof Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, deputy director of the Centre of Excellence for 21st century weather at Australian National University.
“Undoubtedly climate change has been a major factor because none of the climate mechanisms that gear things up for a hot year – like El Niño or [conditions in the Indian ocean] were really in play.”
The spring of 2024 was the hottest on record at 2C above average, winter was the second-hottest and records tumbled during a blistering August.
Queensland had its hottest year on record and South Australia and Western Australia both had their second-hottest. New South Wales experienced its third-hottest year, Victoria its fifth, Tasmania its joint-fifth and the Northern Territory had its 11th hottest year.
It was also wetter than average across the country. Victoria, SA and Tasmania all had slightly drier than average years, with other states and territories being wetter than usual.
The bureau’s data shows the 10 hottest years on record for Australia have all occurred since 2005. Only two years out of the past 40 – 1989 and 2000 – have been cooler than average.
Perkins-Kirkpatrick said: “It is not physically possible for us to have really cool years any more. With all that warming baked in, to have a year a lot cooler than average is virtually impossible.”
Dr Ailie Gallant, a climate scientist at Monash University, said: “This is the norm now for us and it will keep moving forward like this because we have not seen the abatement on greenhouse gases. Every year is going to be up there near the top of the list.”
Gallant said climate scientists had expected that minimum temperatures would rise faster than maximums globally as greenhouse gases built up, “but Australia has actually been bucking that trend a bit”.
She said rising night-time temperatures meant uncomfortable nights for many people, as well as health risks, particularly during heatwaves.
“It’s not unusual to hear people complaining about these warm nights. People notice it,” she said.
“But that has big implications for health, particularly in summer time and in vulnerable communities. If you can’t recover from daytime heat during the night, you put a lot of stress on the body.”
