Winter could become a thing of the past within three decades, with the average temperature in the Goulburn Valley and southern Riverina expected to rise by as much as 3.3°C.
That’s according to new research from Australian National University’s Climate Change Institute, which predicts a new season dubbed ‘new summer’ will become the norm.
New summer represents a period of the year where temperatures will consistently peak in many cases well above 40ºC for a sustained period.
Senior lecturer Dr Geoff Hinchliffe said a tool developed by ANU modelled historical average temperatures of each season and compared them to the projected data.
‘‘What we find everywhere is that there’s really no period of a sustained or lasting winter,’’ Dr Hinchliffe said.
‘‘In 30 years’ time winter as we know it will be non-existent. It ceases to be everywhere apart from a few places in Tasmania,’’ he said.
■The visual climate tool was prepared for the Australian Conservation Foundation and can be viewed at: https://myclimate.acf.org.au