Sydney: Eastern Australia endured severe “off the scale” fire conditions on Sunday amid a record-breaking heatwave that sparked dire warnings from authorities.
While bushfires are common in Australia’s arid summer, climate change has pushed up land and sea temperatures and led to more extremely hot days and severe fire seasons.
“The conditions for Sunday are the worst possible conditions when it comes to fire danger ratings,” New South Wales (NSW) state Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons told reporters. “They are catastrophic, they are labelled catastrophic for a reason, they are rare, they are infrequent, and to put it simply, they are off the old conventional scale.
“It’s not another summer’s day. It’s not another bad fire weather day. This is as bad as it gets in these circumstances.” In Queensland, the Bureau of Meteorology said numerous February temperature records were being broken across the state as the mercury soared above 40 degrees Celsius.
