July was hottest on record – yet again

WEATHER experts say it’s no surprise the Gold Coast has just had its hottest July since records began.

Meteorologist with the Bureau of Meteorology Matthew Knepp told the Bulletin July’s warm temperatures were in line with the global trend of climate change.

“Last year it was the same,” Mr Knepp said.

“It’s just an overall warming trend, last year it was a record, now again this year it is a record. This is normal … because it’s global warming, it’s climate change.”

Last month, the Gold Coast Seaway’s average temperature was 22.4C, 1.2C higher than the average since records began in 1992.

Coolangatta’s average this year was 22C, 1.4C higher than the long-term average of 20C. Records began being kept for this location 36 years ago.

The hottest day last month was last week on Friday, when the Gold Coast Seaway reached 25.2C and Coolangatta reached 24.5C.

“That’s what we should expect with climate change, it’s much easier to break warm weather records than to break cold records,” Mr Knepp said.

He said there had been no fronts or rainfall to cool the region down despite the mornings generally being cooler.

He said unless August was particularly warm, the Gold Coast was unlikely to break winter temperature records.

Today’s maximum is expected to be 23C.