Elite tennis players feel the heat at Australian Open as summers intensify

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-09/uom-etp091415.php

Public Release: 14-Sep-2015
Elite tennis players feel the heat at Australian Open as summers intensify
University of Melbourne

Melbourne summer temperatures have been steadily climbing over the past 25 years, but even more so during the two weeks of the Australian Open in late January, new data analysis reveals.

The average afternoon temperature in January has risen by 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.44F) per decade since 1987. But in the two weeks of the Australian Open - usually held in mid-late January - temperatures have increased by 1.25 degrees (2.25F) per decade.

Ben Hague, a third-year Atmosphere and Ocean Sciences student at the University of Melbourne, said extreme summer temperatures have also become more prevalent, like those experienced during the 2014 Australian Open.

Players, officials and spectators were forced to endure four straight days of temperatures over 41 degrees (105.8F) that year.

It is what motivated Mr Hague to analyse HtempMelbourne's weather data in detail.

"This was a particularly extreme event," Mr Hague said. "But the point of this study was to measure whether these events are happening more often."

"And the results suggest that they are."

Mr Hague found both hot days and measures of heat stress increased significantly over the whole summer, but mainly in January - and particularly, mid-late January.
[Summer in the southern hemisphere, the equivalent of July in the northern hemisphere.]

The number of half-hourly observations where a temperature of 35 degrees or more was recorded in January has more than doubled. The data also suggests high summer temperatures are starting earlier.

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While the main focus of the study was on the 27 years since the Australian Open moved to mid-late January, Mr Hague also investigated more than 100 years of Melbourne summers.

The results reflect an overall increase of both maximum and minimum temperatures during the season.

He found that since 1911, average daily maximum temperatures throughout all of summer increased by two degrees - with 1.8 degrees of this warming having occurred since 1990.

Hotter days are also getting hotter, with the data showing a five degree increase in the average temperature of Melbourne's hottest December day since 1989.

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