Destination NSW's promise of a "warm country welcome" for visitors to Tibooburra has rarely rung as true, with the outback town ranked as the state's hottest place in what was the warmest year globally on record.

Tibooburra, located in the corner where the borders of NSW, Queensland and South Australia meet, had an average mean temperature of 22.3 degrees in 2014, exceeding all other sites with monitoring stations run by the Bureau of Meteorology. 

The town also experienced its highest maximum temperature of 48.4 degrees on January 2 last year – a day Tracey Hotchin remembers well.

"You didn't stick your nose out the door unless you had to that day," said Ms Hotchin, who owns the Tibooburra Hotel, which boasts air-conditioning and the town's only cold beer on tap.

"The hardest part is extended periods of heat. [Last] January, we had a period of three weeks where it didn't get below 42 degrees" for maximums, she said.

"It got as high as 48 degrees during the day and was about 42 to 44 degrees up until nine or 10 o'clock.

"If it got to 32 degrees at night you were lucky."

read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/tibooburra-broils-as-hottest-town-in-nsw-in-2014-20150117-12sbvj.html

It's quite uncanny... Scientists spend oodles of time and thinking power to crunch numbers that are accurate within 0.0001 per cent and some average Joe Blow or Jane Doe are disputing the meaning of average... When the average of temperature between 1950 and 1990 is calculated, it means that one can accurately find what the average is... Beyond this one can establish with great precision how much each year since 1990 relates from this "average" and that which year are above any previous year since records have been kept. 

Brazil's Environment Minister Izabella Teixeira has said the country's most populous region is experiencing its worst drought since 1930.

The states of Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais must save water, she said after an emergency meeting in the capital, Brasilia.

Ms Teixeira described the water crisis as "delicate" and "worrying".

Industry and agriculture are expected to be affected, further damaging Brazil's troubled economy.

The drought is also having an impact on energy supplies, with reduced generation from hydroelectric dams.

The crisis comes at a time of high demand for energy, with soaring temperatures in the summer months.

"Since records for Brazil's south-eastern region began 84 years ago we have never seen such a delicate and worrying situation," said Ms Teixeira.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30962813

On a day when it seems that Sydney is enjoying a southern "polar vortex" with temperature barely rising above 13 degrees C in the sun, one would be tempted to relinquish thoughts about global warming. But fear not, the process is not arrested. 

At least 13 people have been killed by a tornado that hit the northern Mexico border city of Ciudad Acuna.

Hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed in the city, in Coahuila state, which is just across the border from Del Rio, Texas.

Images from the scene showed cars upended and leaning against buildings.

Dozens of people have been injured and officials warned that the death toll could rise.

Coahuila Governor Ruben Moreira, on a visit to the stricken area, said 10 adults and three children had died and a baby was missing. Another 150 people had been taken to hospital, he said.

reads more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-32877631

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At least 500 people are reported to have died in a heatwave sweeping India, with temperatures reaching 48C (118F) in some areas.

Most deaths have taken place in the southern states of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, where more than 140 people have died since Saturday.

Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh recorded 48C while temperatures rose to above 44C (111F) in the capital, Delhi.

Authorities have urged people to stay indoors and drink plenty of fluids.

Heatwave conditions have been prevailing in the two worst-affected southern Indian states since mid-April, but most of the deaths have happened in the past week.

The worst-hit state has been Andhra Pradesh where 246 people have died from the high temperatures in the past week. State officials said 62 people died of sunstroke on Sunday.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32872846

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At least three people have died and hundreds of homes have been destroyed in flash flooding in the southern US.

Two people were killed in weather-related accidents in Oklahoma and a man lost his life in San Marcos, Texas.

Some areas saw up to 10 inches (25cm) of rain over a 24-hour period, with more predicted across the region.

Twelve people, including two children, were reported missing along the Blanco river in Texas, local media report.

Jonathan McComb was staying at a house in Wimberley with his wife and their young son and daughter when they were swept away.

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-32867226

See toon at top...

In decades to come, historians wondering how Australians found themselves with dangerous climate change may well be puzzled.

How was it that inhabitants of a continent prone to wild swings in annual rainfall, severe heatwaves and bushfires weren't more wary of greater climate chaos? Hadn't we led successful global action to ban ozone-depleting chemicals after a big hole was discovered in the 1980s over Antarctica, leaving southern Australia facing a surge in cancer-causing ultraviolet light?

Yet decades of warnings about threats posed by rising greenhouse gas levels appear to have done little to stir us into demanding our leaders implement necessarily ambitious action to curb climate change.

Another of those trenchant alerts will be issued on Monday when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases its assessment of the impacts on the world of 1.5 degrees of global warming.

With 1.1 degrees of warming since pre-industrial times so far, scientists can already identify humanity's hand in significant changes to our biosphere that have seen Arctic sea ice disappear, dry zones expand poleward in both hemispheres and creatures great and small forced to adapt or die.

Read more:

https://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-change/australians-the-frog-in-the-saucepan-as-world-warms-up

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