Australia weather: records forecast to be broken as heatwave temperatures surge past 40C

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Australia weather: records forecast to be broken as heatwave temperatures surge past 40C

Oodnadatta and Port Augusta forecast to reach 48C and Sydney’s western suburbs to hit 45C

Calla Wahlquist
@callapilla
Tue 17 Dec 2019 12.19 GMT
First published on Tue 17 Dec 2019 08.13 GMT

December heat records are expected to tumble in Australia from Wednesday as a heatwave moves across South Australia to Victoria and New South Wales.

Temperatures are forecast to peak in Victoria and South Australia on Friday, with Oodnadatta and Port Augusta to reach 48C, and peak in NSW on Saturday.

NSW has been placed under a total fire ban from midnight on Tuesday to midnight on Saturday as firefighters battle to contain more than 100 fires burning around the state, including the 400,000 hectare Gospers Mountain megafire in Wollemi national park in the Blue Mountains.

Smoke from this fire is forecast to lay thick over Sydney on Wednesday morning, but will shoot up to 3km up into the atmosphere on Thursday when the heatwave reaches western Sydney. Penrith is forecast to reach 44C on Thursday and 45C on Saturday, while the eastern suburbs of Sydney will reach 39C on Thursday and 35C on Saturday.

Extreme fire danger is forecast for greater Sydney, the Illawarra and the southern ranges on Thursday.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/dec/17/australian-heatwave-records-forecast-to-be-broken-as-temperatures-surge-past-40c

[tblue37]

1. That's 113F! nt

[The_jackalope]

2. The Gospers fire is 1500 square miles...

Gulp. Welcome to the New Normal.

[dixiegrrrrl]

3. Just saw a documentary about the problem in New South Wales

It covered the 5th year of a drought, no decent grazing land left, farmers were trying to feed their cattle by driving 12 hours to buy truckloads of hay which was going up in price before they even got back to their farms.

that's a 24 hour round trip, 3-4 times a week, in an attempt to save valuable blood stock herds.
The small towns in the area which depended on the farming communities are going broke, no one has a lot of money.

Scenes of the lush green grassy areas of a few years ago,compared to the desert like ground now, are heart breaking.

So very much like the Dust Bowl years here in the US, except they don't think the good years will return.