South Australia's summer heat raises records

Over the past three months, South Australia had numerous towns and locations break summer heat records, with Port Augusta officially recording the highest temperature for the country, reaching 49.5c on January 24.

According to the Bureau of Meteorology, this summer should be on record as one of the State's five warmest summers in mean day temperature, with night time averages also one of the highest.

It was the State's warmest January on record for mean maximum temperatures with all areas having above average daytime temperatures.

It was also a drier than average summer across South Australia, the driest since 1985-86.

The coldest summer day in the State was on December 14 - where it was 12 degrees below average across the Eyre Peninsula with many low maximum temperatures records set.

National Outlook

Across Australia there was a range of severe weather events with floods, continuing drought and bushfires which had a devastating effect on many states and territories.

BOM climatologist Dr Lynette Bettio said numerous heatwaves across the country played its part in the country recording its hottest summer on record.

"The heat we saw this summer was unprecedented," she said.

"While the final numbers are yet to be analysed, we know it will be the warmest on record for Australia as a whole, and many individual locations will have broken summer heat records as well.

"There was a noticeable absence of strong cold fronts that would normally bring relief during summer.

"A lot of this was caused by persistent high pressure systems sitting over the Tasman Sea that was blocking those fronts from impacting the south of the country, especially during January."