NINETY years ago Sydney's temperature took a leap. However, it had more to do with rising political, rather than global, heat.
However, Dr Lomb said, it was a tense relationship. William Cooke, appointed in 1912 as the new astronomer, wanted the bureau out so he could move his family into the observatory's occupied residence. "A battle between the two sides" ensued.
The astronomer triumphed and in 1917 the bureau was moved 150 metres south, to an old cottage across the hill.
The seemingly insignificant shift triggered a sudden spike in Sydney's temperature records.
A 1972 study by meteorologists Rosea Kemp and John Armstrong found that since 1918 Sydney's average annual maximum temperature, as recorded at the new site, was 0.7 degrees warmer than the average at the old site. Winter averages were up 1.6 degrees.
Current Bom weather station Oberservatory Hill surrounded by heat sinks
