Bureau Of Meteorology - 2013 Was Australia's Hottest Year Ever Recorded
Ed. note - the scientist in the interview is a self-described skeptic - at least, years ago. That's changed.
MARK COLVIN: "There have always been tough times and lush times", said the Prime Minister Tony Abbott yesterday when asked about drought and climate change. But the Bureau of Meteorology says 2013 was Australia's hottest year on record. And few scientists now doubt that that is the result of man-made climate change.
That includes some former sceptics in the scientific community who formerly doubted whether climate modelling could be trusted to forecast warming. Among them is one of Australia's most respected agricultural scientists, Melbourne University's Professor Snow Barlow.
EDIT
MARK COLVIN: So I won't ask you to comment on one particular heatwave or one particular bushfire or one particular flood. But are you saying that, overall, the number of heatwaves, bushfires, floods has grown and will continue to grow?
SNOW BARLOW: Particularly heatwaves. We know that when you look at the way you calculate temperatures, as you move it up a degree - and the climate in Australia has actually moved up by 0.85 of a degree centigrade in the last 50 years - you move the distribution of temperature. That means that you get more events, very hot days. In other words: heatwaves. And not only individual days that are over 35, or in some areas 40, but sequence of days. So instead of having an isolated day, you may have three or you may have five. And individual occurrences of that is what we call weather, of course. But when you put them all together and you see what the model is projecting, they paint a very convincing picture.
EDIT
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3947396.htm