PETER LLOYD: A remote town in Western Australia has recorded the country’s hottest October in history.

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rsday, October 31, 2013 18:50:00

PETER LLOYD: A remote town in Western Australia has recorded the country’s hottest October in history.

This month, Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley has had an average maximum temperature of 42 degrees. It’s the highest for October in any Australian town since records began.

Caitlyn Gribbin reports.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: The outback WA town of Fitzroy Crossing is home to about 1,200 very sweaty people.

Aaron Jacobs thinks over the past month he’s seen most of them at the local pool he manages.

AARON JACOBS: Oh, it’s relentless (laughs). You don’t really get too much of a chance to cool off. I mean, your minimums get down to, say, 26. So, you know, six o’clock in the morning you walk out and it’s still quite warm. And your evenings sit up around 35. You just really don’t get that break.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: The Kimberley town is infamous for its sweltering weather. It’s already held the record for the hottest October in Australia – that was set in 2002.

But this record-breaking October surprised even the most experienced weather observers.

Glenn Cook is from the Bureau of Meteorology.

GLENN COOK: Fitzroy Crossing’s had a very warm October and in fact their average maximum temperature for the month has been 42 degrees exactly and that actually breaks the Australian record for the hottest October on record anywhere in the country.

Essentially our records started in the late 1800s and early 1900s and no particular location has recorded a maximum temperature across the whole month of 42 degrees since our records began.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Local Indigenous woman Joelene Cotterill says the heat is challenging for people who live in the Aboriginal community out of town.

JOELENE COTTERILL: At the moment we haven’t got too much of our water holes around the rivers. Gets very difficult for people who don’t have vehicles or anything ’cause then, you know, they can’t go anywhere. They’re just stuck in your household. Poor darlings. All you see mostly is they’re all just outside their verandahs, kneeling with the taps on, trying to cool down.

Like not really so much worried about the weather itself, but if you haven’t got too much water holes around, there’s not much you can do.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Belinda Bonfield, who’s originally from Queensland, works in an air-conditioned building, so feels pretty lucky.

BELINDA BONFIELD: For me it’s been pretty easy ’cause I’m in the office during the day, but for people out there in the heat it’s very hot. The kids are not wanting to walk to school, they’re wanting to get driven to school. Fair enough. They come home pretty exhausted in the afternoon.

We moved over from Queensland eight years ago now, so we’ve acclimatised to Fitzroy weather but certainly the kids – I’ve got four children and they certainly have felt the heat in the last (inaudible).

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: The Bureau’s Glenn Cook again.

GLENN COOK: The last time the record was broken was by Fitzroy Crossing back in 2002, so it’s taken 11 years to break that record again. And with temperatures rising around the world and around Australia, that’s the sort of thing we’d expect to see.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: What other Australian towns are also in the running to, maybe one day, beat Fitzroy Crossing to this record?

GLENN COOK: It’s hard to see anywhere beating Fitzroy Crossing because Fitzroy Crossing and the community to the west, Camballin, have had that record since the ’60s and it’s fairly unlikely, I guess, apart from some very unusual event, for anyone else to break this record.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: Fitzroy Crossing pool manager Aaron Jacobs says he’s in the right place to deal with the heat.

AARON JACOBS: This is definitely the best job in the community to have in these extreme events.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: What temperature is the water in the pool when it’s at least 40 degrees outside?

AARON JACOBS: The water temp sits around 31 degrees and if you add bubbles, it’s pretty much a spa. You can really feel it once you start doing some laps. You can actually feel yourself sweating while you’re doing laps.

CAITLYN GRIBBIN: You’re sweating while you’re in the water?

AARON JACOBS: Yes, you can feel it. Once you do about four laps, you start picking up that heart rate and you can really start to sweat. It’s quite difficult to put up with sometimes.

PETER LLOYD: And they still have summer to look forward to. That’s the Fitzroy Crossing pool manager, Aaron Jacobs. Our reporter is Caitlyn Gribbin.

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