BoM claim that Onslow 50.7 yesterday matches the 50.7 at Oodnadatta in outback South Australia, on January 2, 1960.
In their “climate change dreams”. Oodnadatta was from a liquid in glass thermometer in probably an older style large Stevenson screen while Onslow would be from an AWS with a fast reacting electric platinum probe.
Not like it has never happened before in W.A. though.
50.7°C is 123.2°F.
“The Divisional Meteorologist (Mr. E. B.
Curlewis) said on Tuesday that a tempera-
ture of 120.5 degrees on January ll, 1905,
and January 3, 1922, was the highest shade
temperature recorded at Marble Bar. The
highest temperature ever recorded under
a Stevenson screen in Western Australia
was 123.2 at Eucla in 1906. The Steven-
son screen was used by all weather bureaus
in the Commonwealth for securing official
shade temperatures.”
trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/255735839
I believe Onslow was 50.7C at 2:26pm. At 2:30pm it was 49.2C. I don’t recall any 10 min interval reaching 50C so it was a quick spike around that time. Somebody might have the 2:20pm recording.
Interesting reading Siliggy’s comments about the highest recorded temperatures. I was present at Forrest WA in the mid 60s when the official temperature recorded in the Met. Stevenson screen shot past 100F at 8:00 am, went past 120F at 10:00 am, and shortly afterwards crashed down due to a wild storm front. The equipment outbuildings on the airport often had internal temperatures exceeding 130F in summer.
The latest Onslow obs was at the Onslow Airport. Checking the BOM records show they previously had another station in town. Airport read ~0.7C hotter than town in early decades (1941-1970), ~1.4C hotter towards the last decades of the overlap (1991-2020). I question the significance of the news.
[read more, follow the link below]
wattsupwiththat.com/2022/01/26/australias-broken-temperature-record-part-1/#comment-3440486
Thanks tygrus for following this – I note that at the BoM extreme records page
www.bom.gov.au/climate/extreme/records.shtml
Onslow AP 13Jan2022 50.7 now sits at the top.