• Question: Why is Australia so hot when it's not near the equator?

    Asked by smileyabz to Arttu, Ceri, James_M, Monica, Philip on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: James M Monk

      James M Monk answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Some parts of Australia are near the equator – Darwin is in the tropics, for example. Climate is determined by more than the latitude of a place, though. The centre of Australia is a desert – I guess it doesn’t get much rain because Australia is quite big and the prevailing wind passes over land rather than sea, therefore not picking up much moisture. The parts of Australia near the coast are not desert because the air is more moist near the ocean.

      I suspect that the way that the air and oceans circulate around the Southern Ocean may also have quite a big effect, but I don’t know exactly what.

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