Australia claims to be the driest continent on this planet, and South Australia claims to be the driest state in the driest continent. Australia is too extensive to have a single climate. It is not necessarily ‘hot and dry’, as it tends to be characterised, although such a description can be applied with moderate accuracy to the
interior.
Although Cloncurry, in Queensland, Australia recorded a temperature of 53.3°C (128°F) on 16/1/1889, it was made using a nonstandard temperature screen. Consequently, the Oodnadatta recording is the high
temperature extreme.
However, on 2/1/1960, a record high temperature was taken in Australia with a standard instrument called "Maximum/Minimum Thermometer in Standard Stevenson Screen". That highest temperature was recorded at Oodnadatta, Australia, and it was 50.7°C (123°F).
[Source: World Weather/Climate Extremes Archives]
interior.
Although Cloncurry, in Queensland, Australia recorded a temperature of 53.3°C (128°F) on 16/1/1889, it was made using a nonstandard temperature screen. Consequently, the Oodnadatta recording is the high
temperature extreme.
However, on 2/1/1960, a record high temperature was taken in Australia with a standard instrument called "Maximum/Minimum Thermometer in Standard Stevenson Screen". That highest temperature was recorded at Oodnadatta, Australia, and it was 50.7°C (123°F).
[Source: World Weather/Climate Extremes Archives]
