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07-01-2025
Bureau Report + Agencies
SYDNEY: Australia’s southeast sweated in a heatwave that intensified on Sunday, elevating bushfire risk and prompting authorities to issue fire bans for more parts of Victoria state.
Australia is in the grips of a high-risk bushfire season, with firefighters last week battling a large blaze that ripped through Victoria’s Grampians National Park, razing homes and farmland.
The nation’s weather forecaster warned that temperatures could reach 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit) in some parts of Australia’s second most populous state of Victoria on Sunday. The mercury in state capital Melbourne was forecast to hit 38 C (100 F).
In the state’s northwest, in the town of Mildura, where the temperature was predicted to reach 42 C (107 F), it was already 32.9 C (91 F) at 10:30 a.m., surpassing the January mean maximum temperature, according to forecaster data.
The heat sparked total fire bans for three Victorian districts where authorities labelled the fire danger as “extreme”, the second highest danger rating.
Bureau of Meteorology official Miriam Bradbury said temperatures would likely peak in Victoria on Sunday.
“What that means for the fire dangers is we are seeing a spike across more districts,” Bradbury told Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
The states of Western Australia, New South Wales and Tasmania were also under heatwave warnings on Sunday, the forecaster said on its website.
Bradbury on Saturday said a wind change bringing a cool change to the country’s southeast was expected on Sunday night.
Australia’s last few fire seasons have been quiet compared with the catastrophic 2019-2020 “Black Summer” of wildfires that destroyed an area the size of Turkey, killing 33 people and billions of animals.
Australia’s southeast on Saturday sweltered in a heat wave that raised the risk of bushfires and led authorities to issue fire bans for large parts of Victoria state.
Australia faces a high-risk bushfire season that has already seen Victorian authorities battle a large fire that last week ripped through the state’s vast Grampians National Park, razing homes and farmland.
The nation’s weather forecaster said temperatures would be up to 14 degrees Celsius (25.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above average in some areas on Saturday, with Melbourne, the capital of Australia’s second most populous state Victoria, set to hit 37 C (98.6 F). At Melbourne Airport, the temperature was already 32.8 C (91 F) at 10:20 a.m. local time, more than six degrees above the January mean maximum temperature, according to forecaster data.
Total fire bans were in place for two districts in Victoria’s west, including Wimmera, an area stretching more than 180 km (111 miles), where authorities labelled the fire danger as “extreme”, the highest danger rating.
“The more significant wind change that is driving the heat across the southeast is not due until Sunday night,” Bureau of Meteorology official Miriam Bradbury told Australian Broadcasting Corp television.
The country’s last few fire seasons have been quiet compared with the catastrophic 2019-2020 “Black Summer” of wildfires that destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people.
Authorities in Australia’s Victoria state looked on Sunday to contain and assess damage from a large fire that has ripped through The Grampians National Park this week, destroying homes and farmlands.
