Real Climate Records

SHIRT-SLEEVES INTERVIEW

Even that usually animated scene the “Lunch-Hour Parade” in Hay street reflected the languidness of the populace owing to the heat today.

With a previous night minimum in the sixties the temperature rose rapidly during the morning, and at 12.30 p.m. had reached 91.3 degrees. A Weather Bureau official said then that it should rise still more.

The reporter took off his coat, and himself shirt-sleeved and perspiring profusely, the official was invited, to recapitulate through these columns some of the October heat of past years.

He could not establish today’s high temperature as a record but he showed that it was not very far from that mark.

‘The temperature today,’ he said “is the highest experienced in October since 1922. In that year the absolute record for the month was established with the maximum of 98.6 degrees on October 30 and that was followed by 94.4 degrees on the following day. On an average the temperature reaches 90 degrees in October only about one year in five.

Other than the 1922 figure the next highest registrations were 97 degrees in 1894 and ,96 degrees in 1895 and that was the only recorded maximum above 95 degrees during the last 40 years.”

Last night’s minimum of 62.8 degrees, he added was also somewhat exceptional. It was equalled on the first of the month in 1918 but during the past 20 years was exceeded on only two occasions on October 11 in 1911, when 63.7 degrees was reached, and on October 28, in 1920, when the lowest registration overnight was 64.8 degrees, that being the hottest October night, ever experienced in Perth.

Discussing week-end prospects, he said that present indications were that the end of the hot spell was in sight.

Tomorrow should see cooler conditions with north-west to west and later south westerly winds. Those should be followed by some coastal showers, but those should be brief, and Saturday should be practically fine. There are also indications of some scattered inland rain during the next 24 hours probably affecting the goldfields, but possibly the outlying agricultural districts would be affected also.

‘Of course,’ added the official as he helped his visitor with his coat, ‘it may be showery still on Saturday morning, as far as we can see now but otherwise the week-end is pretty sure to be fine.