Pinch and a punch, first day of the month, no returns!

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Where I live, spring has most definitely sprung with a punch, delivering a blue sky day with a maximum well into the mid-20s.

The liquidambar burst into leaf a couple of weeks ago and the London plane tree is not far behind. The spur-winged plovers with their safety yellow faces and piercing shriek are already swooping on dogs, having laid their eggs on lawns up and down the street.

Normally, we count down the days until spring, desperate to shrug off winter. But this year has been different, at least it has in large parts of eastern Australia, which has experienced one of the warmest winters on record. Hard to believe but even Melbourne's mean winter temperature has been higher than all winters since records began in the 1850s.

And, get this, the national icebox Canberra recorded its highest ever winter temperatures. It only shivered through one maximum below 10 degrees.

Ski resorts have closed early thanks to warmer temperatures which produced rain rather than snow. It doesn't seem that long ago that the ski season's last hurrah was in the September school holidays. A 2024 study found the length of the ski season had already shrunk by about 28 per cent. This year it's been so bad Thredbo Alpine Resort's valuation has plunged by 50 per cent, from $292 million to $143 million.

Climate and winter sports advocacy group Protect Our Winters says climate change is threatening the future of Australian snow sport: "With diminishing opportunities for training and competition in Australia, athletes are increasingly forced to chase snow opportunities overseas." This after our most successful Winter Olympics.

Add in the monster El Nino and it's no wonder the Bureau of Meteorology is predicting a spring scorcher, followed by an even hotter summer. It's looking like the long-term 1.5-degree temperature increase from pre-industrial times set in the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement will become ancient history by 2030.

We've already seen short-term breaches of the 1.5-degree threshold with Europe particularly hard hit this northern summer with successive heatwaves and wildfires. The rolling green hills of England turned brown in a fierce drought, which saw water restrictions imposed on large swathes of the country. The emerald green lawns of London's Hyde Park became a dustbowl.

The British are now coming to terms with the fact their built environment, designed for a wet a cold, wet climate, cannot cope with extreme heat.

Last month, the NSW RFS sent two helicopters and support personnel to France to help battle wildfires there. While they often help out in North America, it was the first time our firefighters saw........

© Canberra Times