SYDNEY: Australia’s southeast on Sunday (Oct 1) sweltered in a heat wave that raised the risk of bushfires and prompted authorities to issue fire bans for large swaths of New South Wales state.
The nation’s weather forecaster said temperatures would be up to 12 degrees Celsius above average in some areas, with Sydney, capital of Australia’s most populous state New South Wales, set to hit 36 degrees Celsius.
At Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport, the temperature was already 28 degrees Celsius at 10am (2300 GMT), more than 5 degrees Celsius above the September mean maximum temperature, according to forecaster data.
Australia faces a high risk bushfire season as it experiences an El Nino weather event, recently announced, which is typically associated with extreme events like wildfires, cyclones and droughts.
State Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib said the “scorching” heat lifted the risk for bushfires in the week ahead.
“Not only is it hot, it’s dry and it’s windy and those conditions combined are the perfect storm,” Dib said, announcing the start of an official bushfire danger period.
Fire authorities on Sunday issued nine fire total bans for parts of the state in a bid to reduce the chance of bushfires.
Further south in Victoria state, authorities issued an emergency evacuation order for a rural area in the Gippsland region, about 320km east of the state capital Melbourne, due to an out-of-control bushfire.
Australia’s last two fire seasons have been quiet compared with the catastrophic 2019-2020 “Black Summer” of bushfires that destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people. In Sydney, local resident Sandy Chapman said she was worried about the mix of extreme heat and wind.
“It doesn’t take long to start a fire and have it burning and it’s very scary,” Chapman said.
Sydneysider Katie Kell hoped there would be no repeat of bushfires on the same scale as 2019-20.
“I don’t know, with how hot it’s been since the start of spring, I’m not too confident,” Kell said.
Source: CNA
