Temperatures in southern Australia yesterday topped 49°C, shattering previous records as sizzling citizens received free beer and heat-stressed bats fell from trees.
The Bureau of Meteorology reported temperatures of 49.5°C north of Adelaide, while inside the city temperatures reached 47.7°C, breaking a record that had stood since 1939.
Adelaide residents are used to sweltering days during the southern hemisphere summer, but even they struggled with the oppressive temperatures.
Photo: EPA-EFE
More than 13 towns across South Australia have smashed their own heat records.
The state’s health authorities early yesterday reported that 44 people had received emergency treatment for heat-related illnesses in the past 24 hours.
“Remember to check on elderly friends, relatives and neighbors, and those who are unwell,” the state emergency services tweeted.
Health authorities were also forced to issue a public warning to avoid contact with hundreds of heat-stressed bats falling from trees in parkland areas.
Authorities in central Australia said they had to cull more than 50 feral horses, after they found 90 dead or dying wild brumbies near a dried-up water hole.
Shocking images of dozens of dead horses strewn across the dry ground began to circulate on social media this week.
“With climate change well and truly upon us, we expect these emergencies to occur with increasing frequency, and nobody is truly prepared and resourced to respond to them,” Central Land Council Director David Ross said in a statement.
While thousands of people have flocked to beaches to cool off in the surf, hundreds have taken to shopping centers to stay out of the heat.
At the Red Lion Pub in Adelaide’s Elizabeth North suburb, publicans promised to hand out free beers if the mercury rose above 45°C.
By 1pm, there was a line out the door and round the block, while about 100 people waited more than an hour for their free drink.
At Adelaide Zoo tortoises have been getting cool water wipedowns, rock wallabies have been given ice to lick and hyenas have taken refreshing dips, but the temperatures are also testing municipal services, with SunCity buses forced to cut their services, leaving commuters searching for trams or trains to get home.
Emergency services are on the alert as more than 13 districts are under threat of possible bushfires.
Meanwhile, a total fire ban was issued further south in the island state of Tasmania, where authorities continued to battle blazes.
Parts of the southeastern state of Victoria were also sweltering through temperatures above 40°C.
The soaring temperatures follow a heat wave last week that saw Australian towns among the hottest places on Earth.
As many as a million fish were discovered dead last week along the banks of a major river system in drought-battered eastern Australia, with thousands more found killed on Monday about 900km away in the north of New South Wales.
The government has launched a review into the mass fish kill.
Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) reported that farmers in central and western Australia have been forced to cull at least 2,500 feral camels gathering in “plague proportions” in the past month.
Regarded as pests, ABC said many have wondered onto properties where temperatures had reached 50°C this summer, where they are draining valuable water supply and feed for cattle.
The heat is set to spread across the states of Victoria and New South Wales.
Victoria today would become the “hottest place in Australia,” the bureau’s Jonathan How said yesterday.
The cities of Mildura, Swan Hill and Echuca in Victoria are set for 46°C, which could break records.
Additional reporting by the Guardian
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