Record High Temperatures As Fires Move Into Victoria, S. Australia - Summer Still 1 Month Away
Record-breaking spring temperatures helped spark and fan bushfires across the country on Thursday, forecasting a potentially devastating bushfire summer.
In Victoria, 100km/h winds fanned more than 60 blazes, as an unprecedented heatwave moved north to south, drawing comparisons with the “worst conditions you’d see in February or March” from the state’s emergency services minister Lisa Neville. “This shows us what the risks will be in summer around Victoria, so we still have a long way to go to be ready.”
Neville said emergency services crews were equipped and trained for the difficult forecast summer, but she said she was concerned about residents of bushfire-prone areas being properly prepared. “One of the things we felt earlier this year out of the fires that happened over the summer was that there was a level of complacency.”
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Victoria’s most extreme bushfire warning – code red – was issued for central and northwestern region, and a fire ban imposed across the state. Melbourne’s maximum temperature of 40.9C matched the 1894 record for hottest November day. Laverton was the hottest place in Victoria at 44.3 degrees. In Mildura, a thick haze of red-earth dust blanketed the city – the regular duststorms a consequence of drought – and in the west of Victoria, more than 80,000 homes were left without power after a network failure which also sparked a fire.
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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/nov/21/victoria-issued-code-red-bushfire-warning-amid-thunderstorm-asthma-threat