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SYDNEY: Parts of Australia, including Sydney, were suffocated during the hottest November night on record with temperatures likely to remain high on Sunday (November 29), prompting authorities to issue a total fire ban.
Sydney’s CBD topped 40 degrees Celsius on Saturday, while swaths of western New South Wales, South Australia and northern Victoria baked at even higher temperatures near 45 degrees.
Temperatures are expected to top 40 degrees for the second day in a row on Sunday, while the Bureau of Meteorology forecast a five- or six-day heat wave for parts of northern New South Wales and southeastern Queensland.
Predictions of elevated temperatures prompted the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) to say that demand could exceed supply in New South Wales on Sunday afternoon.
Several fires broke out on Sunday, including one on the western outskirts of Sydney that, according to the New South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, damaged property.
More than 60 wildfires were still burning across the state, but most had been controlled by firefighters when a southward wind shift caused temperatures to drop rapidly.
It was the first outbreak of significant wildfire activity since the devastating fires of 2019-2020, which burned an area roughly the size of the UK and left 33 people dead as tens of thousands fled their homes.
The fire season also killed or displaced nearly three billion animals and cost the economy an estimated $ 7 billion.
Australia has been experiencing hotter and longer summers with the latest season dubbed “Black Summer” by Prime Minister Scott Morrison due to unusually prolonged and intense wildfires that burned nearly 12 million hectares, killed 33 people and an estimated 1,000 million animals.
The Rural Fire Service issued a total fire ban for most of eastern and northeast New South Wales by Sunday, saying there was a “very high to severe fire danger forecast” as hot and gusty winds they exacerbate dry conditions.
