Welcome relief arrives for overheated southern states
Australia’s south-east has woken up to a refreshingly cool change after a sweltering heatwave gripped five states.
The only notable exception is the state’s north-east and high country regions, which are currently in the grip of Victoria’s bushfire crisis; Highs expected on Sunday will reach the 40s again.
Temperatures elsewhere in Victoria are expected to be 15-18C lower than on Saturday, while cool-to-mild weather is expected in central and south-eastern regions.
Melbourne, which hit 43 degrees a few days ago, is heading towards a peak of 19 degrees on Sunday, while highs of 27 degrees can be expected in Adelaide and Canberra and 21 degrees in Hobart.
After sweating out highs above 40 degrees on Saturday, the expected cool change in Sydney arrived two hours early, around 9pm.
It was a pleasant 23C in the Harbor City as of 10pm and the high for Sunday was expected to be 26C.
Borrona Downs cattle station at White Cliffs in western NSW had the hottest Saturday temperature in the state.
At 9am the temperature was already 35.7 degrees and was heading towards a scorching 44.1 degrees at 4.30pm.
Sydney’s hottest spot was the Bureau of Meteorology weather station at Holsworthy Army Base, with temperatures reaching 43.5C just before 3pm.
Nearby Campbelltown came close almost two hours later with a reading of 42.9C.
While the city’s highest recorded temperature remained at 45.8C at Observatory Hill in January 2013, Saturday marked the first time since then that Sydney has gone above 42C twice in the same summer.
Cold air in southern NSW late on Saturday has pushed north, causing a cool southerly shift along the coast that will continue through Sunday, BoM forecasters say.
More than 50 fires broke out at the same stage in NSW on Saturday; Four of these were not contained, but none are of serious concern.
By early evening they were all at recommendation level.
Rural Fire Service deputy chief Ben Millington said crews thankfully brought the outbreaks under control quickly.
“We made sure we responded with trucks and planes to attack these fires very quickly to stop them from spreading, and that strategy worked extremely well,” he said.
Ambulance Commissioner Dominic Morgan said on Saturday that the service was expecting a 10 per cent increase in the number of calls due to extreme weather conditions.
