Australia this week experienced its hottest day on record and the heat wave is expected to worsen, exacerbating an already unprecedented bushfire season, authorities said yesterday.
The average nationwide temperature of 40.9°C on Tuesday beat the previous record of 40.3°C in January 2013, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology said.
“This heat will only intensify further today [Wednesday],” meteorologist Diana Eadie said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The heat wave is another alarm bell about global warming in Australia, where this year’s early and intense start to regular summer bushfires has heaped pressure on the Australian government to do more to tackle climate change.
Hundreds of bushfires have been raging across Australia for months, including a “mega-blaze” burning north of Sydney.
Smoke from the fires has engulfed Sydney, raising air pollution to hazardous levels in an event that leading doctors have labeled a “public health emergency.”
At least 3 million hectares of land has been torched across Australia, with six people killed and about 700 homes destroyed.
Scientists have said that the blazes have come earlier and with more intensity than usual due to global warming, and a prolonged drought that has left the land dry and many towns running out of water.
The fires have sparked climate protests targeting the conservative government, which has resisted pressure to address the root causes of global warming to protect the country’s lucrative coal export industry.
Record spot temperatures were recorded this week in western Australia, where firefighters have also been battling blazes raging across thousands of hectares of land.
The hot weather is drifting across the country’s arid center toward the east.
Temperatures in parts of New South Wales are forecast to reach about 45°C today, while those in western Sydney are due to reach more than 46°C as conditions worsen on Saturday.
Turbulent winds of up to 100kph are forecast to also hit the eastern coast and worsen the blazes.
“Over the next few days, we are going to see firefighters, the emergency services and all those communities close to fires ... challenged with a new threat,” New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said yesterday.
Embers carried by the winds can travel up to 30km from a blaze, authorities said.
“We are going to have a number of fronts that are going to fuel or escalate the fires burning, but also the potential to have spot fires and embers traveling very long distances,” New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison last week made a rare admission that climate change was one of the “factors” behind the fires, but he defended the government’s record on emissions reduction and failed to announce additional measures to address the issue.
Climate protesters plan to march on Morrison’s official residence in Sydney this week to rally for change and highlight his absence as large parts of the country burn. Morrison is vacationing at an undisclosed location overseas.
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