Pfautsch’s research is not yet complete, yet his observations to date make him think that people will spend time in a park until it reaches about 30 degrees; after that, they retreat indoors. This means that a temperature increase of one or two degrees can drastically reduce the amount of space young children and their carers can use in the city, and he fears for what this means as climate change intensifies.

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By 2060, western Sydney might be facing an unbearable 100 to 160 days above 35 degrees in summer, Pfautsch predicts in a new paper published in the journal Weather and Climate Extremes.

In such circumstances, parks like the one he visited today and large parts of our cities, would only be bearable with far more planting, removal of dark, heat-absorbent surfaces and use of irrigation systems. Everything needs to become greener and wetter, he says.

According to that research, the heat battering Sydney and south-eastern Australia is already being accelerated by climate change. While in the first 120 years of records, 351 hot days were identified, 478 hot days were recorded between 2000 and 2020 alone, it says.

High temperatures across much of Australia at present have been caused by a high-pressure system over central Australia, where cloudless skies over the dry interior have allowed temperatures to build up over an extended period, says Monash University’s Dr Ailie Gallant.

Like Pfautsch, she believes Australians are already being hit by climate change.

Over recent years, the La Nina weather conditions have masked the growing climate heat. Now, without a La Nina reducing temperatures “the climate gloves are off”, says Gallant.

“This is just a manifestation of that. You know, heatwaves happen, but they’re going to become – and are becoming already – longer, hotter and more intense and more frequent.”

High temperatures and especially slow-moving heatwaves are already the most lethal extreme weather phenomenon Australia faces, she said.

Globally, 2024 is on track to be the hottest post-industrial year and the first in which temperatures have been 1.5 degrees higher than average, according to Copernicus, the European Union’s weather service. Its data shows November 2024 was the second-hottest November on record after last November.

The Bureau of Meteorology predicts the intense heat will recede across South Australia and Victoria, but remain high across large parts of NSW, including Sydney, on Tuesday before a southerly buster causes temperatures to fall by between five and 15 degrees later in the day.

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