무엇이 이 4월의 열기를 야기 했나?

What`s causing this record April heat?

Both Sydney and Adelaide recorded their hottest April weather on record yesterday. (9NEWS)

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No, you’re not imagining things – it’s really hot right in south-eastern Australia right now. 

아니다, 당신은 상상도 못하고 있다 - 지금 남동호주는 정말덥다.

Unseasonably hot.

계절에 맞지않은 더위.

In fact, yesterday was the hottest April day on record in both Sydney and Adelaide, while Melbourne also recorded temperatures more than 10 degrees above the April average.

사실 어제는 시드니와 아들레이드의 가장 뜨거운 4월 날의 기록이었다, 멜번 또한 4월의 평균보다 10도 넘은 온도를 기록했다.

A pool of heat that brought the nation’s latest ever 45 degree days on record in West Australia’s Pilbara region two weeks ago has spread south. 

2주 전에 서호주 필바라 지역에서 전국의 가장 최근에 45도를 기록한 무더위가 남쪽으로 퍼져갔다.

It is this hot air mass that’s now causing unprecedented April warmth in Adelaide, Sydney and many places in between.

뜨거운 기단이 아들레이드와 시드니 그리고 많은 지역의 사이에 전례없는 4월의 따뜻함을 야기 시키고 있다.

Sydney registered its highest April temperature in 160 years of records on Monday afternoon, reaching 35.4 degrees at Observatory Hill. 

Observatory Hill에서 35.4도를 도달한 시드니는 월요일 오후 160년간 가장 높은 4월의 온도로 기록되었다.

This beat the city's previous April record from 2016 by more than a degree.

이것은 그도시의 이전 2016년 4월 기록을 1도 이상 눌렀다.

Today is Adelaide's third consecutive day at or above 34 degrees, which is the city's longest three-day spell this hot during April in 132 years of records.

Mildura's 38.1 degrees just after midday today is a new April record for Victoria, beating the state's previous record of 37.8 degrees from 1986, also from Mildura.

Canberra's five days above 28 degrees between last Thursday and Monday this week was the city's first such spell during April on record.

So, what's caused this summer-like burst of heat so late in the year?

Adelaide residents flocked to Henley Beach today as temperatures exceeded 34 degrees for the third day in a row. (AAP)

Locals used the chance to cool off during the record-breaking heatwave. (AAP)

A stubborn ridge of high pressure across southern Australia, called the subtropical ridge, has been deflecting cold fronts to the south of the country during the last couple of weeks.

More recently, a broad trough of low pressure over western and southern Australia has helped transport this hot air from the nation's western tropics to our southern states.

This weather pattern is a bit odd for this time of year as April is when we typically see cold fronts penetrating further north. During March, the mean sea level pressure was about two hectopascals higher than usual across southern WA, SA and NSW.

In addition to the weather features that are causing this record-breaking April hot spell, it's possible that our planet's warming climate has also played a part.

Australia's climate has warmed by around one degree Celsius since 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorology's 2016 State of the Climate Report. According to the Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society's Statement on Climate Change, mean temperatures have warmed in all parts of the country during this time.

Adelaide is current experiencing its longest three-day spell this hot during April in 132 years of records. (AAP)

However, it’s not yet possible to determine if, and how much, of a hand climate change has played in this current bout of unseasonable heat, without performing an event attribution study.

Climate attribution studies aim to determine the likelihood that an extreme weather event was helped by climate change. Some events are and some aren't. These studies involve three main components:

- An understanding of how an extreme weather event, such as a heatwave or flooding, occurs;

- High quality historical observations of the metric relevant to this weather event, such as temperature or rainfall observations;

- Climate models need to be able to accurately simulate the relevant type of extreme weather, for example a heatwave in southern Australia.

While it's too early for the results of an attribution study to determine whether or not this record-breaking autumn heat is related to climate change, it's already proven to be unprecedented on a number of measures in multiple locations.

© Nine Digital Pty Ltd 2018