BOM : Hiding Australia’s Very Hot Past

Australia used to be extremely hot. In 1896 Adelaide reached 111 degrees and Melbourne 112 degrees.

30 May 1896 – “SCOURGED.”

TimesMachine: August 18, 1896 – NYTimes.com

January temperatures at Bourke plummeted from the 1870s to the end of records in 1992.

In the US, NOAA hides the heat of the 1930’s by tampering with data, but BOM takes a different approach. They simply erase all pre-1910 temperatures.

Long-term temperature record: Australian Climate Observations Reference Network – Surface Air Temperature