GENEVA, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- There should be no doubt that climate change was playing a role in the process of the Australian bushfires, a spokesperson for the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said here Tuesday.
Clare Nullis, the WMO spokesperson, told a press briefing that nationally, the rainfall had been very much below average in Australia last November, the driest on record out of 120 Novembers since 1900.
The spokesperson cited an Australian government agency as saying that the year 2019 in Australia had been unusually dry and had set conditions for a long and challenging fire season.
The hottest day ever on record had been Dec. 19 of 2019, she added, with an average high at 41.9 degrees Celsius across Australia.
Australia is currently enduring one of the worst bushfire crises in the nation's history, with at least 25 people having been killed since September.