Watch Australian fry egg outside amid record heat

Thursday, January 7, 2016, 2:03 PM - While Canadians continue to deal with frigid cold, Australians are making breakfast outside.

Temperatures in Townsville, Queensland hit 38^oC Thursday, hot enough for resident Mike Wearne to fry an egg poolside.

In the video above, Wearne is seen spraying cooking oil onto a frying pan. He then cracks the egg and about seven minutes later, it appears to be fried.

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According to the Australian government's Bureau of Meteorology, 2015 was the country's fifth-hottest year since the agency began tracking national figures in 1910.

"For temperatures, it was a year of two halves - a relatively cool part of the year and then an extremely warm second half," Blair Trewin, senior climatologist at the bureau told The Sydney Morning Herald.

The ongoing strong El Niño, which has peaked in recent weeks, can be attributed to these hot conditions, the Bureau reported on Tuesday.

Research in 2015 shows that record-breaking hot temperatures in Australia over the last 15 years outnumber new cold records by a factor of 12-to-one, according to research fellow at the Australian National University Sophie Lewis.

"This dramatic increase in hot records in recent years is not random; it is linked to human-caused climate change," Dr. Lewis told The Sydney Morning Herald. "Combined with strong El Niño conditions, we should be prepared for hot conditions to continue in Australia in 2016."

The bureau's annual climate statement also highlighted record dry spells across much of eastern and southern portions of the country.

Nationally-averaged rainfall was 5 per cent below average for 2015, at 443.7 mm (1961–1990 average 465.2 mm). Rainfall for the Top End, most of Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, southeast and western Australia were all below average.

Source:  BOM 2015 climate statement | The Sydney Morning Herald

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