Firefighters in Australia, which is emerging from last week’s record heat wave, are using cooler temperatures to contain wildfires that destroyed property and claimed lives.
Temperatures in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, which reached a record on Friday of 45.8°C, were forecast to reach 25°C yesterday, with Melbourne hitting 26°C.
More than 120 blazes are still burning in New South Wales and Victoria, the nation’s most populous states, emergency services said.
“We’re not out of the woods yet,” Victoria’s State Control Centre spokeswoman Kim Payne said in a telephone interview from Melbourne yesterday.
“We’re using the current cooler, more stable conditions to work really hard to get the fires contained before temperatures peak again later in the week,” she added.
Melbourne is forecast to rise to 35°C on Thursday, while the national capital, Canberra, which posted its second-highest temperature on Friday of 41.6°C, will reach 34°C tomorrow. Sydney is forecast to register 30°C tomorrow.
Australia’s hot, dry climate makes bushfires a major risk in the southern hemisphere’s summer, a situation exacerbated this month by a consistent heat wave.
The continent registered a national average of 40.33°C on Jan. 7, the hottest day in more than 100 years of records.
More than 150 homes have been destroyed by fire throughout the nation’s southeast this month.
An 80-year-old man was killed last week by a blaze in the Victoria town of Seaton, while a firefighter died earlier this month in the island state of Tasmania, where about a 100 homes have been destroyed.
The fires have created a thick smoke haze above Melbourne, which is hosting the Australian Open tennis tournament.
The haze has been seen in New Zealand, about 1,450km east of Australia, United Press International reported yesterday, citing MetService meteorologists.
The worst fires in Australia’s history, the so-called Black Saturday blazes, killed 173 people as they swept through rural Victoria in February 2009.
FLYBY: The object, appears to be traveling more than 60 kilometers per second, meaning it is not bound by the sun’s orbit, astronomers studying 3I/Atlas said Astronomers on Wednesday confirmed the discovery of an interstellar object racing through the solar system — only the third-ever spotted, although scientists suspect many more might slip past unnoticed. The visitor from the stars, designated 3I/Atlas, is likely the largest yet detected, and has been classified as a comet, or cosmic snowball. “It looks kind of fuzzy,” said Peter Veres, an astronomer with the International Astronomical Union’s Minor Planet Center, which was responsible for the official confirmation. “It seems that there is some gas around it, and I think one or two telescopes reported a very short tail.” Originally known as A11pl3Z before
US President Donald Trump’s administration on Monday accused Harvard University of violating the civil rights of its Jewish and Israeli students, and threatened to cut off all federal funding if the university does not take urgent action. Harvard has been at the forefront of Trump’s campaign against top US universities after it defied his calls to submit to oversight of its curriculum, staffing, student recruitment and “viewpoint diversity.” Trump and his allies claim that Harvard and other prestigious universities are unaccountable bastions of liberal, anti-conservative bias and anti-Semitism. In a letter sent to the president of Harvard, a federal task
‘CONTINUE TO SERVE’: The 90-year-old Dalai Lama said he hoped to be able to continue serving ‘sentient beings and the Buddha Dharma’ for decades to come The Dalai Lama yesterday said he dreamed of living for decades more, as the Buddhist spiritual leader prayed with thousands of exiled Tibetans on the eve of his 90th birthday. Thumping drums and deep horns reverberated from the Indian hilltop temple, as a chanting chorus of red-robed monks and nuns offered long-life prayers for Tenzin Gyatso, who followers believe is the 14th reincarnation of the Dalai Lama. Looking in good health, dressed in traditional maroon monk robes and a flowing yellow wrap, he led prayers — days after confirming that the 600-year-old Tibetan Buddhist institution would continue after his death. Many exiled Tibetans
Hundreds of protesters marched through the Mexican capital on Friday denouncing gentrification caused by foreigners, with some vandalizing businesses and shouting “gringos out!” The demonstration in the capital’s central area turned violent when hooded individuals smashed windows, damaged restaurant furniture and looted a clothing store. Mexico City Government Secretary Cesar Cravioto said 15 businesses and public facilities were damaged in what he called “xenophobic expressions” similar to what Mexican migrants have suffered in other countries. “We are a city of open arms... there are always ways to negotiate, to sit at the table,” Cravioto told Milenio television. Neighborhoods like Roma-Condesa
RSS