According to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) on 5 March 2024:
Australia's climate has warmed by 1.50 ± 0.23 °C between 1910 and 2023, leading to an increase in the frequency of extreme heat events. In recent decades, there has also been a trend towards a greater proportion of rainfall from high intensity, short duration rainfall events, especially across northern Australia during the wet season. April to October rainfall has declined across southern Australia in recent decades, due to a combination of long-term natural variability and changes in atmospheric circulation caused by an increase in greenhouse gas concentrations.
The World Meteorological Organisation it its December 2023 "Significant weather and climate events in 2023" supplement noted:
Parts of northern Australia experienced major flooding during the early months of 2023. The remnants of Tropical Cyclone Ellie, which made landfall on 22 December 2022 in the western Northern Territory, brought major flooding to the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia and adjacent parts of the Northern Territory in late December and early January. Dimond Gorge received 355.6 mm on 2 January and 830.2 mm in the week from 28 December to 3 January. The Fitzroy River at Fitzroy Crossing exceeded its previous record level by more than a metre, and the main road bridge was destroyed, severing the only road links between the east Kimberley and areas further south and west for several months. A second major flood affected the far northwest of Queensland and eastern Northern Territory in early March. The Gregory River reached record levels and the town of Burketown was evacuated, although it ultimately escaped full inundation. Several Indigenous communities were also evacuated for extended periods. Later in the year, Tropical Cyclone Ilsa became the first category 5 landfall in Australia since 2009 when it crossed the coast east of Port Hedland on 13 April, in a sparsely populated area with limited impacts on land apart from the destruction of a roadhouse. However, much of Australia outside the tropics has had average to below average rainfall in 2023 to date, after widespread wet conditions in 2021 and 2022, and winter crop production is forecast to be slightly below the 10-year average, with a forecast 34% fall from record high levels in 2022. September was especially dry and was the country’s driest month on record averaged over the continent.
On 17 March 2024 this is how Australia was positioned in a global contest.
COPERNICUS Climate Pulse
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The annual global mean temperature for the 12 months from February 2023 to January 2024 was the highest on record, with Copernicus reporting that it was 1.52 °C above the 1850–1900 pre-industrial average.
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