More recently such equally high temperatures have appeared in the UK and Europe.

Europe has also recorded unprecedentedly high flood levels. The intensity of both have been put down to climate change, The New York Times reported.

Does this have implications for us in the southern hemisphere? The short answer is yes.

I will use this week's column to argue that this is so. I'll also show how we can use the lesson from the north to good advantage.

With local government elections almost upon us, I'll pay special attention to the lessons we can learn for urban development.

Given the rapidly spreading new suburbs in cities such as Wagga, it is to be hoped incoming councillors will put this knowledge to good use.

How many candidates will include climate change adaptation in their campaigns?

The crux of the case is that scientists have warned record-breaking temperatures of nearly 50 degrees recently experienced in parts of the northern hemisphere could become the norm during Australian summers.

Not freak events, note, but the norm. While long-range forecasts aren't yet available for the upcoming Australian summer, experts have said conditions overseas would become part of annual weather patterns due to climate change.

CSIRO research scientist Dr Michael Grose said the recent conditions in the northern hemisphere were indicative of what's to come.

"As the climate warms up, we should expect those conditions to be possible in Australia in coming years," Dr Grose said.

"Days of up to 50 degrees are definitely possible. We do expect ups and downs in the temperatures, but we're trending the odds to hotter weather."

Emeritus Professor Steffen said hotter-than-average temperatures were an inevitability.

"The recent heatwave in Canada is a forecast of what's to come in Australia.

"What is happening in Canada is a wake-up call everywhere, and it's unbelievable our government has not heard those calls."

The recent North American experience provoked Ken Pimlott, recently retired head of Cal Fire, to tell The Sydney Morning Herald that such fires are no longer outliers, but spikes in a new normal in a world not prepared to manage them.

Dr Sebastian Pfautsch, a specialist on urban heat at Western Sydney University, says that though Australian attention has drifted from the terrible summer of 2019-2020, he fears for the future of residents of some suburbs in Sydney and Melbourne.

We can confidently expand that to include many suburbs in most south-eastern Australian towns and cities.

The heat is coming, he says, and we are not prepared for it.

Stephen Livesley is an associate professor in forest sciences at the University of Melbourne, and an expert on the benefits of urban forests.

"It's possible we're going to end up with large neighbourhoods which people in 20 or 30 years' time will simply avoid," he says.

This concern is not misjudged, says Professor Christian Jakob, a Monash University atmospheric scientist.

"Due to global warming such heatwaves will in some areas increase in intensity and duration."

Areas particularly prone to the phenomenon include northern Europe, North America and south-eastern Australia, he says.

This is of course of particular importance to DA readers.

Watching the news from America these past few weeks, Penrith resident Keith Heggart has fretted about summers to come.

His street in Penrith is older than others and there is some shade, and some gaps between the houses, but when he looks at the new developments nearby, he despairs.

"There are no trees, there is no shade," he says. "You could reach out your window and touch the house next door.

When he looks at new developments on the fringes of Australian cities, Pfautsch says residents have been abandoned to wholly predictable heat extremes caused by global warming but exacerbated by poor planning regulation.

"Councils are failing to impose proper planning regulations. Strapped for cash, they have allowed property developers to shape the built environment," he said.

Regional cities such as Wagga, with new and rapidly expanding suburbs, are in the same boat.

We urgently need all three levels of government, local, state and federal, to adopt climate change adaptation measures.

All also of course need to adopt net-zero emissions by 2030.