Australia is facing elevated wildfire risks months ahead of the summer fire season, as an unusually warm winter scorches parts of the continent and threatens to set temperature records.
Heat is forecast to bake vast areas of the country in the coming days, according to Angus Hines, a meteorologist with Australia’s weather bureau. Temperatures could be between 2C and 8C above average from Townsville down to Melbourne on the east coast, he said.
The fire season usually peaks over the summer months from December through February in Australia’s more heavily populated eastern and southern regions. Temperatures in more remote areas could be as much as 15C above their seasonal average on Friday, Hines said.
“We’re not yet into the fire weather season for most of Australia, but with this combination of hot, dry and at times windy weather, we will see widespread moderate-to-high fire danger,” Hines said. “We don’t anticipate a broad-scale stretch of cooler weather impacting Australia until the end of next week.”
Heat records have been set in Europe and Asia during the Northern Hemisphere summer, and wildfires have burnt parts of Greece and Canada, as climate change results in hotter and wetter weather. The world recorded its hottest ever day in July.
Photograph: An aerial photo of Ardea Resources, Goongarrie mining site outside of Kalgoorlie, Australia, on Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2024. Photo credit: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg
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