ABSTRACT
In Australia, where I live, the summer of 2012-13 was hot. Despite a weak to neutral La Ninã system, which usually produces cooler conditions, temperatures soared, an intense heat wave affected 70 percent of the country, and the hottest day ever for the entire continent was recorded. As we all became inured to the evening television news leading with images of violent bushfires consuming tinder dry bush and coating the landscape with smoke, the Climate Commission, then a government-funded independent expert body, dubbed the season the “Angry Summer.”2
