Chronicle Editor
Australia set a record for its hottest day ever for a second straight day with an average national temperature of 41.9 degrees Celsius (107.4 Fahrenheit), a full degree higher than the previous mark.
The Bureau of Meteorology said yesterday the new nationally averaged maximum was reached on Wednesday, topping the 40.9 degrees hit on Tuesday, which beat the previous record of 40.3 C in January 2013.
The heatwave has exacerbated an unprecedented, drought-fuelled series of bushfires ravaging large areas of Australia.
The previous hottest December day was 49.5 degrees celsius in Birdsville, Queensland, in 1972.
Authorities in Australia on Thursday declared a seven-day state of emergency in New South Wales, the second in as as many months, as a record heatwave fanned unprecedented bushfires raging across the region.
Some 100 fires have been burning for weeks in the country’s most populous state. Half are uncontained, including a “mega-blaze” ringing Sydney and covering Australia’s biggest city in a haze of toxic smoke.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the state of emergency was due to “catastrophic weather conditions”.
“The biggest concern over the next few days is the unpredictability, with extreme wind conditions, extremely hot temperatures,” Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney.
There are 2 000 firefighters battling the blazes with the support of teams from the United States and Canada as well as the Australia Defence Force.
New South Wales Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said five 100-person “strike teams” were on standby to deploy to the most dangerous fires, “given the enormity of some of these fire complexities and the severity of the forecast weather conditions that are expected to unfold throughout today.
“The worst of the fire weather conditions, the extreme fire danger ratings we are expecting today, are centred around the greater Sydney environment,” he added. — Al Jazeera
Online Reporter