Total fire ban in place as intense heatwave moves east
Australia’s south-east will bear the brunt of a persistent heatwave as the threat of more fires remains extreme.
The heatwave will be felt sharply in NSW on Saturday; Temperatures will halve in Victoria, with a sweltering 43C forecast for Sydney and even higher in the western suburbs.
Central and western NSW will also get through this, with Bourke forecast to reach 42°C and Dubbo 40°C.
The temperature is expected to reach 37 degrees in Canberra.
The Bureau of Meteorology said damaging winds were expected to develop across parts of south-east NSW on Saturday morning.
Winds from west to northwest are expected to strengthen ahead of a trough that will move across the southeast of the state on Sunday.
The Rural Fire Service has declared a complete fire ban for NSW and the ACT due to hot, dry and windy conditions.
Fire danger is rated as extreme in five regions, including Sydney.
Fire crews are patrolling the NSW side of the Murray River as conditions deteriorate and fires threaten to spread across the border from Victoria.
“People in these areas need to be aware of this potential, especially in hotter and windier conditions… and people need to act now,” said Tom McDevitt, southern border regional manager for the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Victorian cities and towns can look forward to a reprieve on Saturday as temperatures halve to the mid-20Cs.
Temperatures in Melbourne reached 43C on Friday; this was the city’s hottest day since the Black Summer of 2019-2020.
The welcome follows a fire that burned more than 35,000 hectares at Longwood in Victoria’s north on Friday.
Three people (two adults and one child) who were called to shelter at their property in Longwood East have not been heard from.
The state is not yet free of fire danger, as the combination of an arid landscape, dry lighting and erratic winds can ignite fires.
A strong south-westerly wind shift has led the bureau to issue severe weather warnings for damaging winds of up to 90km per hour stretching from inland South Australia to eastern Victoria.
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