World’s Worst Heatwave – The Marble Bar heatwave, 1923-24 ( in Australia almost 90 years ago.)

Whats Up With That ^ | August 21, 2010 | Anthony Watts

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

With all the caterwauling over the record heat in Moscow over a few days due to a blocking high pressure zone, it would seem valuable to revisit a truly exceptional historical heatwave that occurred long before “global warming” became a buzzword.

From The Australian Bureau Of Meteorology, something the Aussies might remember and remind their MP’s of, given the recent downfall of labor to the climate policies they are pushing. It is still a stalemate, but it’s down to a few people.

From Wikipedia: The record for the longest heat wave in the world is generally accepted to have been set in Marble Bar in Australia, where from October 31, 1923 to April 7, 1924 the temperature broke the 37.8 °C (100.0 °F) benchmark, setting the heat wave record at 160 days.

CO2 was 305 ppm at the time. Imagine the press coverage if this happened now. From The Australian Bureau Of Meteorology:

The Marble Bar heatwave, 1923-24

source: http://www.bom.gov.au/lam/climate/levelthree/c20thc/temp1.htm

“Day by day maximum temperatures at Marble Bar over the period 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924. At the peak of the heatwave – between late December and late February – many days approached or exceeded 45°C”.

The world record for the longest sequence of days above 100°Fahrenheit (or 37.8° on the Celsius scale) is held by Marble Bar in the inland Pilbara district of Western Australia. The temperature, measured under standard exposure conditions, reached or exceeded the century mark every day from 31 October 1923 to 7 April 1924, a total of 160 days.

Temperatures above 100°F are common in Marble Bar and indeed throughout a wide area of northwestern Australia. On average, Marble Bar experiences about 154 such days each year. The town is far enough inland that, during the summer months, the only mechanisms likely to prevent the air from reaching such a temperature involve a southward excursion of humid air associated with the monsoon trough, or heavy cloud, and/or rain, in the immediate area. This may sometimes be associated with a tropical cyclone or a monsoon low. In the record year of 1923-24 the monsoon trough stayed well north, and the season was notable for its lack of cyclone activity. (In fact, the entire Australian continent was untouched by tropical cyclones throughout the season, a rare event in the 20th Century). The rainfall recorded at Marble Bar during the record 160 days was just 79 mm, most of it in two heavy, short-lived storms that developed after the heat of the day. Only a further 12 mm of rain fell before the following December. Severe drought prevailed across the Western Australian tropics, and stock losses were heavy. With no rain to speak of, and minimal cloud, there was nothing to relieve day after day of extreme heat.

The highest temperature recorded during the record spell was 47.5°C on 18 January 1924. There have been higher temperatures at Marble Bar, with the highest recorded being 49.2°C, on 11 January 1905 and again on 3 January 1922. But temperatures in other Western Australian towns have been higher: in a remarkable late-season heat-wave in February 1998, Mardie recorded a maximum of 50.5°C (on the 19th) – the highest temperature in Western Australia, and the second highest ever recorded in Australia using standard instrumentation (Oodnadatta, in South Australia, recorded 50.7°C on 2 January 1960). Several other recordings above 49°C were reported in the northwest on the days preceding Mardie’s record, and at Nyang, the average maximum over the entire summer exceeded 43°C. As in 1923-24, very dry conditions accompanied the extreme heat.

h/t to Steven Goddard

[KSCITYBOY]

btt

[tophat9000]

For Death Valley The greatest number of consecutive days with a maximum temperature of 100 °F (38 °C)°F or above was 154 days in the summer of 2001. Also Death Valley holds the record for the highest reliably reported temperature in the Western hemisphere, 134 °F (56.7 °C) at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913—just short of the world record, 136 °F (57.8 °C) in Al ‘Aziziyah, Libya, on September 13, 1922

[JoeFromSidney]

For converting between Fahrenheit and Centigrade, here's an approximation that gives good results for temperatures in the "normal" range:

F = 2 x C + 30.

C = (F - 30)/2

Note that it works because you multiply the C by a number that's a bit too big, then add a number that's a bit too small. The errors tend to cancel. It's within a degree or two of the right number, and can be done in your head.

[November 2010]

North Texas near the Oklahoma border had 70 straight days over 100 farenheit with no rain in the 90’s. Rough heatwave.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Makes you wonder how come the world population is so large.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

154 days wow...

Guess I am not surprised.

Winters there aren't so bad.

[blam]

"Makes you wonder how come the world population is so large."

I remembered this one:
(Just south of you)

Historical Review: Megadrought And Megadeath In 16th Century Mexico (Hemorrhagic Fever)

"The epidemic of cocoliztli from 1545 to 1548 killed an estimated 5 million to 15 million people, or up to 80% of the native population of Mexico (Figure 1). In absolute and relative terms the 1545 epidemic was one of the worst demographic catastrophes in human history, approaching even the Black Death of bubonic plague, which killed approximately 25 million in western Europe from 1347 to 1351 or about 50% of the regional population."

"The cocoliztli epidemic from 1576 to 1578 cocoliztli epidemic killed an additional 2 to 2.5 million people, or about 50% of the remaining native population.