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<\/p>\nSydney’s summers are becoming hotter and have increased in length by nearly 50 days since 1990, according to a new global climate study.<\/p>\n
Researchers from the University of British Columbia analysed weather data on 10 global mid-latitude cities between the polar cold regions and the tropics \u2014 including Tokyo, Paris, Toronto, Reykjav\u00edk, St Petersburg and Sydney.<\/p>\n
The study examined the length of summer, measured by temperature rather than dates, and found Sydney had seen the biggest increase in the number of summer days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Sydney summers are becoming longer, according to a new study.\u00a0 (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n
Lead author Ted Scott said the data showed the city’s summers had lengthened by about 15 extra days every decade since 1990, when compared with the 1961-1990 period.<\/p>\n
“Another way to think about that is in 20 years, Sydney has been on average adding a whole month of summer,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Now this is up until 2023, so we should be careful and say we don’t know if these trends will continue \u2026 but the trends are pointing in one direction.<\/p>\n
“Sydney is definitely, of the 10 cities I looked at, one of the places this is changing the most dramatically.”<\/p>\n
Western Sydney University urban heat expert Sebastian Pfautsch said longer summers could have serious impacts on the population.<\/p>\n
“It sounds wonderful to start with, more days on the beach, but of course the consequences are very critical,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Think about earlier summers, what that means is a shorter spring. You need a certain amount of time to adapt to summer conditions so that we can better cope with them and that is really critical for human health.”<\/p>\n
Professor Pfautsch said other impacts included school closures, reduced construction work, and increased strain on health systems.<\/p>\n
Sydney outpacing other global cities<\/p>\n
The rate at which Sydney’s summers lengthened was more than double that of most other cities analysed.<\/p>\n
Minneapolis was the only city examined that experienced a similar rate to Sydney \u2014 the Midwest US city recorded about an extra nine days every decade since 1990.<\/p>\n
The study also found Sydney’s summers are transitioning more abruptly and accumulating more heat.<\/p>\n
“At its heart, what it comes down to is that warming from human-driven climate change is really impacting the warmest season of the year,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Scott, who grew up in Minneapolis, said the research confirmed his anecdotal experience that summers felt different than in the past.<\/p>\n
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Sydney’s lengthened summer days doubled that of most other cities analysed, including Tokyo, Paris, Reykjav\u00edk and St Petersburg. (ABC News: Mark Davies)<\/p>\n
“It feels like they’re longer, it feels like the shoulder seasons on either side just disappear in a hurry and it feels like summers are staying much more intense than I remember them being, we wanted to test that human perception,” he said.<\/p>\n