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Hi fordward it's very hard to tell whether this is due to climate change or just a 'seasonal' thing that comes around every so many years - I wasn't around at the time of Sydney's 45d and I don't know if it was a 'one-off' day or an extended heat wave.
I know that Adelaide coppped a very hot spell also before I was born, 114f - 117f maximums but again I don't know how long it lasted.
What I have noticed is that over the past 20+ years Adelaide no longer gets Perth's weather - since childhood we would look at the weather report and say whatever Perth was having we'd get, about 4 days down the track.
Now that doesn't happen - this current spell has literally come out of nowhere - there was no mounting heat leading up to it, the 26th was reasonably warm 34 or thereabouts then bang, the next day it nearly tops 46 - not nice !! and is continuing above 40 for at least a couple more days, then slowly sliding down to about 35 next Friday and about 20 overnight.
We had a similar bout in March last year - a number of days over 35 which constitutes a heat wave but several of those were over 40 and what does that constitute ?? hell on wheels from my perspective !!!
The truly awful thing this time is the sudden large number of so far unexplained deaths there have been already, something like 16 - 20 since Tuesday, many among the elderly and I doubt they'll be the last.
I would hate to think this is going to become a regular event each summer, but one needs a crystal ball for that - if I knew the answer for certain, I'd move because Adelaide's power supply is to say the least unpredictable, but I won't get up on my soapbox just now.
Thanks for the inquiry, sorry the reply was a bit longwinded, but trying to give an over view, it got a bit that way..cheers S