Will summers become unbearable?

Melbourne and Hobart also experienced an unprecedented heatwave - forcing our power authorities to start "load shedding" - in other words cutting power from thousands of homes and businesses for a short period of time.

Our electrical capacity was simply unable to cope with the demand.

And that has had dire consequences, especialy for the elderly.

Dozens of people have died suddenly during the heatwave but it's unclear at this stage how many are directly linked to the extreme conditions.

However there have been a record number of call outs for heat-related illnesses, stretching emergency services and hospitals to capacity.

As the heatwave continues to drag on.

The South Australian government has said it's unlikely there will be more power shedding, and besides, this weather event is extremely rare and unlikely to be repeated any time soon.

However, weather experts may beg to differ.

The Bureau of Meteorology believes as global warming continues to affect our weather patterns, Australia will suffer through more intense heatwaves - they will become commonplace.

In fact, summer could become unbearable, especially here in South Australia which continues to suffer through a long term drought.

The latest predictions by the International Panel for Climate Change are that our average temperature could climb by 6 degrees in a century.

But, based on the latest data on emissions - the situation could be even worse, that six degrees could be on the lower end of the estimate.

Even if we cap emissions now, CO2 stays in the atmosphere for one hundred years, so what happens to our climate during next decade has already been decided.

Continued temperature rise is unavoidable,

Our landscape is showing the effects - once lush parklands now brown dustbowls, native trees dying in their dozens, watercourses bone dry.

So, perhaps Governments and the community need to start planning now for life on a parched, singed continent.