# Australia's second hottest September breaks heat records

> Global heating and El Niño combine to bring record temperatures across Australia, with alpine snow vanishing for the first time in seven decades.
- Title: Australia's second hottest September breaks heat records
- Summary: Global heating and El Niño combine to bring record temperatures across Australia, with alpine snow vanishing for the first time in seven decades. Australia…
- Keywords: australia, september 2026, heat records, el niño, climate change, kosciuszko national park, alpine regions, bureau of meteorology, news, politics, Australia's, second
- Source: the Guardian — https://theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/oct/05/australia-weather-el-nino-climate-crisisseptember-record
- Published: 2026-10-05T06:20:46+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: australia, september 2026, heat records, el niño, climate change, kosciuszko national park, alpine regions, bureau of meteorology, news, politics
## Australia's September heat breaks records
Australia recorded its second hottest September on record last month as global heating and El Niño combined to break heat records across the country.
## Night temperatures hit new highs
Bureau of Meteorology data showed minimum night-time temperatures across the continent were the hottest for any September on a record going back to nineteen ten.
## Temperature surge above normal
Average temperatures for September were two point seven one degrees Celsius above the long-term nineteen sixty-one to nineteen ninety average. Minimum temperatures were two point five two degrees Celsius above average.
## Alpine snow vanishes in September
In Kosciuszko national park, snow depth fell to zero in September for the first time since monitoring started in nineteen fifty-four. At Thredbo, the average night-time temperature was zero point one degrees Celsius, the first time the daily minimum for September had averaged above freezing.
## Climate scientist blames warming
Dr Linden Ashcroft, a climate scientist at the University of Melbourne, said there is only one clear driver of this heat: climate change. This is a clear example of seasonal creep where winter is ending earlier and spring is starting sooner.

> There's only one clear driver of this and that's climate change.
## El Niño intensifies the warming
Dr Simon Grainger, a senior climatologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the El Niño climate system still intensifying in the tropical Pacific, forecast to be the strongest ever recorded, likely contributed to the heat and rainfall patterns seen in September.
## Key takeaway

Australia recorded its second hottest September on record as climate change and El Niño drove temperatures two point seven one degrees Celsius above the long-term average, with snow depth reaching zero in Kosciuszko national park for the first time since monitoring began in nineteen fifty-four.