Australian state sweats in the hottest ever summer

Severe weather in Australia, parts of which have been hit by a 10-year drought, has heightened public concern over climate change.

SYDNEY, March 1, 2010 (AFP) - Western Australia has sweated through its hottest ever summer, recording average temperatures just shy of 30 degrees Celsius (86 Fahrenheit), officials said on Monday.

Weather officials said the giant, dusty state roasted at an average of about 29.6 Celsius during the southern hemisphere summer, 0.2 degrees over the previous high in 1997-1998.

The state capital Perth also endured its driest summer since records began in 1897, with just 0.2 millimetres (0.01 inches) of rain falling in December, January and February. State-wide information is only available since 1950.

"Certainly we had below average rain in the southwest of the state for the start of the year," Stephen McInerney, duty forecaster at the state's weather bureau, told AFP.

"For the next three months we're expecting a 65 percent chance of lower than average rainfall, so we're looking at a continuation of the dry conditions."

Severe weather in Australia, parts of which have been hit by a 10-year drought, has heightened public concern over climate change especially after the country's worst ever bushfires claimed 173 in the state of Victoria last year.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was elected on a strong environmental platform in 2007 and took a leading role at the Copenhagen UN climate talks in December, despite his failure to pass flagship carbon-trading laws.

Western Australia, which is bigger than Western Europe and about four times the size of Texas, was also hit by fires last year when 38 homes north of Perth were engulfed in December.