A reader sent in this news item – Mackay sets January heat record – quoting the Bureau of Meteorology saying “Mackay has set a new record for its hottest January maximum temperature. The weather bureau’s Jeff Sabburg says the mercury hit 39.6 degrees on January 28.”
To understand how dodgy this claim is – there are two BoM recording stations current at Mackay.
Mackay M.O. station 033119 (MO = Met. Office) with data from 1960 and the other is Mackay Aero station 033045 at the airport with a decade of data in the 1950’s then a 30 odd years gap to 1996.
The hottest Jan day claim for the 28th was fom Mackay Aero – there was no hot Jan day record at Mackay M.O. the BoM purpose built official meteorological station for Mackay which had longer continous data than Mackay Aero.
To read more Continue reading BoM blatant cherry picking and ignoring urban warming effects to claim hottest January day for Mackay Queensland →

See comment 5 for update 2 Feb.
Classic bait and switch publicity today by the BoM to cover up a monster FAIL. – Giant heatwave delivers hottest January on record – Readers must understand that after months of talking 95% about maximum DAYTIME temperatures to beat-up their heatwave propaganda, the BoM is today talking “…the average of maximum and minimum temperatures for the month was 29.7 degrees.” A very different metric to the daily max temperatures the BoM has been beating up for months – the BoM is totally opportunistic when it comes to feeding the media heatwave propaganda – shifting goalposts is easy for them.

Here is a BoM chart showing the 1932 January max anomaly record that has NOT been broken this month.

I have already posted on this article – Records topple, city stumbles as gauge hits 46C – in The Australian Saturday 19 Jan 2013 – I focussed then on Sydney and the near less urban stations. However The Australian gives a clear impression in their opening text that heat records were broken across NSW on the 18th Jan 2013.
[SYDNEY’S city centre was hotter than Bourke in the northwest of the state yesterday as decades-old heat records tumbled across NSW, stung by a stubborn mass of heated air moving from the centre of the country. The city recorded its hottest day since records were kept as the temperature hit 46C.]
What deceptive nonsense – the impression created by the words “…decades-old heat records tumbled across NSW…”, is that 18 Jan 2013 was also a record hot day at country centres. This is not borne out by the facts.
Lets us take this graphic from The Australian 18 Jan 2013. I have left the copy on the left untouched and on the right have added in black under “18 Jan corr” the correct maximum for the 18th Jan 2013. Then in red I have added the max on 11 Jan 1939 if available – stations below Ivanhoe were discussed in my previous article.

Starting with Bourke which was hotter on the 12 & 13th Jan (48.3 & 48) – obviously no record there on the 18th – and 11 Jan 1939 was 117F or 47.2 – it was 48.3 on 10 Jan 1939.
Griffith was hotter on the 5th & 6th Jan (44.7 & 44.3) obviously no record there on the 18th – and 11 Jan 1939 was 116F or 46.6.
Wagga Wagga was 44.1 on the 18th Jan but felt 117F or 47.2 on 11 Jan 1939.
Ivanhoe recorded 44.9 on the 18th but had hotter days on 5th, 6th & 7th Jan (46.7, 46.4, 45.3) obviously no record there on the 18th – and 11 Jan 1939 was 120F or 48.9.
How does The Australian come to publish the clanger errors for 18 Jan 2013 ? Knowing that January 1939 was hot in Sydney – why not do the stand-out obvious thing and run some checks on NSW sites for Jan 1939 ?
Note to see the full article through The Australian paywall – search the exact headline in Google.

Lets be real – after two cool summers – summer 2010-11 and summer 2011-12 – you can not blame the Australian Bureau of Meteorology for hyperventilating about the heatwaves sweeping Australia this summer. They have published SPECIAL CLIMATE STATEMENT 43 – INTERIM Extreme January heat update 14 January, 2013. If you go to Table 1 on page 4 – part screen shot below.

You see that on the 9th 12046 Leonora (at the Post Office) hit 49°C an all-time daily max record – the ONLY record-breaking site in Australia on the 9th. Now there is another nearby station 12241 Leonora Aero and in the screenshot below you can see the daily readings for the two sites.

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Note that the 1.6m & 1.8m solid fences have also increasingly boxed in the instruments. All part of micro-site effects contributing to creeping urbanization. All contrary to the international standards for weather instrument exposures. But no barrier to the BoM claiming another record.

The Sydney all time hot day record of 45.8 tops the 45.3 on 14 Jan 1939 but is in the centre of our largest urban heat island, so the number has to be seen in that perspective. We are fortunate to have a map of NSW from the Sydney Morning Herald preserved online with max temperatures recorded as at 11 Jan 1939.

A check on how widespread were all-time high temperatures around the Sydney region on the 18 Jan 2013 finds little support for the 18 Jan 2013 being a regional non-urban all-time record hot day. This Table summarises the regional comparisons. Comments follow the Table in the same order.

Sydney Airport was open from 1929 but daily data is only digitised from April 1939.
Richmond RAAF data – no record there – the all-time hot day is 47.8 on 14 Jan 1939 – max on the 18th was 46.4, a long way shy of 47.8.
Newcastle Nobbys Signal Station recorded 42 which equaled the all-time high on 23 Dec 1990. But Nobbys daily data is only available from 1957 – about 90 years of daily data is waiting in archives for this wealthy nation to enter to disk.
Jerrys Plains Post Office is an interesting case – a site little changed over a century, site open 1907-2012 yet daily data has only been digitised from 1957. But we luckily have a map from the Sydney Morning Herald for 14 Jan 1939 showing the heatwave across NSW on the 11th. This shows Jerrys Plain recorded 120°F or 48.9°C. That puts the temperatures quoted in the map on the Australian today in perspective. Nothing like the heat of Jan 1939.
The Scone Airport reading was topped earlier this months by 44.2 on 12 Jan 2013 – so obviously no all-time hot day in Scone. But we note the 11 Jan 1939 SMH map had 114F or 45.5 for Scone which would have been at Scone Philip Street 61069.
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Picton on the 1939 SMH map recorded 116F – 46.6 and the closest I can find to Picton today is Camden which hit 46.4 on Friday 18 Jan. So so hint of all-time hottest day there.
Cowra on the 1939 SMH map recorded 114F – 45.5, likely at the Cowra Post Office 63021. Cowra Airport on Friday recorded 44.8 but pre 1957 data is not digitised. But no hint of all-time hottest day there.
Canberra on the 1939 SMH map recorded 109F – 42.8, now the Airport 70014 did not commence readings until March 1939 so we do not know for sure where the 109F was measured. In Jan 1939 weather records were kept at Duntroon 70103, Canberra Forest 70015, Canberra Solar Observatory 70100 and Acton 70099. I would guess Acton is the source of the 109F on the SMH map. Canberra Airport on Friday recorded 42 but there was a 42.2 on 1 Feb 1968 so no hint of all-time hottest day in the National Capital.
The SMH map shows Jervis Bay near Nowra was not notably hot on 11 Jan 1939 and I can not locate pre 1955 data to check against the 45.4 on last Friday.
Bega has no pre 1965 daily data available so the 44.6 on last Friday is hard to assess.
Moruya was entered on the SMH map at 111F – 43.9 no doubt from the long term station Moruya Heads Pilot Station which only has dailies entered from 1957. On Friday last Moruya recorded 43.8, so once again the all-time hottest day record still stands.
Summing up it looks obvious that claims of Sydneys hottest day ever on 18 Jan 2013 are not supported by surrounding regional stations. Everything the Australian BoM promotes in our main stream media needs examining with a fine-tooth comb.