Heat records in question

Sunrise on another 40 degree day at Bourke Photo: supplied

Bourke has been back in the 40’s this week and mainstream media is getting excited over record breaking temperatures and the length of the recent hot spell.

But other weather buffs are casting doubt.

Science presenter, writer, speaker, former TV host and author of The Skeptic’s Handbook, Jo Nova has stirred the pot by publishing an online report debunking the stories.

“Australian newspaper archives are full of temperatures recorded higher than 121F in the shade, which is 50C.

“Measurements after 1910 are even done with official Stevenson screens, yet the Bureau of Meteorology throws them away.

“It’s true that temperatures from the 1800s were often recorded on non-standard equipment, or are just literally in the shade, so some of these, perhaps many, are one or two degrees too high.

Read more in the printed edition of the Western Herald.