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AUSTRALIA-WEATHER-HEATWAVE
Australia swelters in record-breaking heatwave
SYDNEY, Dec 28, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Australia’s vast continent is sizzling
through extreme heatwave conditions this week, with temperatures reaching
record highs and emergency services on high alert for bushfires.
The mercury is up to 16 degree Celsius (29 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than
usual for this time of the year for southern Australia, with numerous towns
setting new December records, the Bureau of Meteorology said Friday.
“Heatwave conditions are being experienced across large parts of the
country,” the weather bureau said, adding that the sizzling temperatures
spanned the southern parts of four states and the Northern Territory.
Tiny Marble Bar in Western Australia state, which bills itself as the
nation’s hottest town, recorded a peak of 49.3 degree Celsius (121 degrees
Fahrenheit) on Thursday, it added.
Major cities across the country are also affected, with the thermometer
pushing towards 40 degree Celsius and the heat set to linger into the new
year.
In Sydney, thousands of people flocked to beaches to cool down, while the
state’s health service issued a warning for poor quality air as ozone levels
rise with the hot weather.
“This is all because of a high-pressure system coming off the Tasman sea
that is slow moving and has set up a pattern over several days,” Bureau of
Meteorology duty forecaster Nick Neynens told Fairfax Media.
“It’s a very stable situation with not a lot changing, meaning everywhere
is pretty much going to be hot and we don’t see a strong change coming yet.”
Emergency services have issued fire bans and warnings and called on people
to stay out of the extreme heat.
A southerly wind change will start to bring cooler wind conditions in
southern Australia that gradually extend inland into South Australia and
Victoria state before weakening, the weather bureau’s meteorologist Sarah
Fitton said Friday.
High temperatures are not unusual in Australia during its arid southern
hemisphere summer, with bushfires a common occurrence.
But climate change has pushed up land and sea temperatures and led to more
extremely hot days and severe fire seasons.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1411 hrs