Climate change lengthens Australian summers by 50% - study

FILE PHOTO: Surfers talk about their session on the waves off Sydney's South Cronulla Beach as they wait for another to come in, December 13, 2014. REUTERS/Jason Reed

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australian summers are now effectively twice as long as its winters as climate change has increased temperatures since the middle of the last century, research released in the wake of the nation's unprecedented fire season showed on Monday.

The report by the Australia Institute, a Canberra-based think tank, compared data from the past two decades with mid-20th century benchmarks of temperatures at the calendar start of seasons in temperate and sub-tropical parts of the country.