My father, Ian Sloane, in January 1939, kept a record of temperatures at his Savernake homestead on its north facing veranda.

That heatwave lasted 16 days straight, all above the old 100 degrees Fahrenheit, peaking at 115 on Black Friday. Not withstanding the fact the thermometer was facing northerly winds and under an iron roof, this was a hot spell.

Father lived through most of the 20th century. He always said it was his hottest summer in his lifetime.

What Howard Jones omited is that such extreme heat waves are becoming more frequent and are coming earlier in the year. For example, two very warm days last October inhibited a lot of wheat formation in the head.

Nor did he mention that heat records are being consistently broken all over Australia and that last year was Australia’s hottest.

The 2009 heatwave that resulted in Black Saturday was said to be a once in a 100 years event.

Now five years later we have another one and it’s not even an El Nino year.

Howard Jones can cherry pick all the statistics he likes, but there is no denying the science of a steadily warming planet.

— DAVID SLOANE,

Corowa