sydney: Australia’s southeast was hit by a heat wave on Saturday, increasing the risk of wildfires and prompting authorities to issue fire bans across large parts of Victoria state.
Australia is facing a high-risk wildfire season that has already seen Victorian authorities battling a major blaze that devastated the state’s vast Grampians National Park last week, destroying homes and farms. Were destroyed.
The country’s weather forecaster said temperatures would be as high as 14 degrees Celsius (25.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above average in some areas on Saturday, with temperatures reaching 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state. Will go.
According to forecaster data, the temperature at Melbourne Airport at 10:20 am local time was already 32.8 C (91 F), six degrees above the average maximum temperature for January.
Complete fire bans were imposed in two districts in Victoria’s west, including the Wimmera, an area spanning more than 180 km (111 mi), where authorities labeled the fire danger as “extreme”. , which is the highest threat rating.
“The more significant heat-boosting wind change in the south-east will not occur until Sunday night,” Bureau of Meteorology official Miriam Bradbury told Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
The country’s past few fire seasons have been quieter than the “Black Summer” of devastating wildfires of 2019-2020, which destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people.
