Southeast Australia experiences a record-breaking sizzle with temperatures rising to the high 40s

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Temperatures are soaring across much of Australia with heatwave warnings in place from the northern territory to Tasmania. Many residents in the southeast of the country are predicted to experience their hottest day in almost five years. Melbourne is expecting to face its hottest December day since 2019 while temperatures in the high 40s are forecast for other parts of Victoria.

Transcript

00:00We certainly are close to a record temperature here, 46.9 in Mildura, which is just on the

00:08New South Wales border, the top west-northwest corner of Victoria, 46.9 is the record as

00:16I said.

00:17We're currently sitting at 41.3 at 11.40 in the morning.

00:22So it's certainly hot, I think it's teetering on that edge, we were forecast for 46.

00:27But the main concern I guess from where we are and particularly the west of Victoria

00:33is the sort of north-easterly winds that we've got going on at the moment.

00:37So there are 25 to 35 kilometre north-easterly winds that will be tending north-west in the

00:44Arvo and that's the real concern for firefighters as they brace for what could be quite a busy

00:50afternoon here in Victoria, particularly in the state's west.

00:54Yeah, absolutely, those winds certainly concerning.

00:57There is a heightened fire risk there, so what are the warnings from fire authorities

01:02for residents in Victoria's west?

01:05Certainly, so this morning we had Luke Hegarty, who's the State Control Centre for the Victorian

01:11Control Centre, speak to Jonathan Kendall, our ABC Statewide mornings presenter, and

01:19he said that it's on the high end of the extreme rating for much of the state, the west of

01:25the state.

01:27The fire districts of the Mallee, the Wimmera, the south-west, the north-central and the

01:32central.

01:33So this is a lot of towns really in Victoria's west, including Warrnambool, Mildura where

01:38I am, Ballarat, Bendigo.

01:42So a lot of those regions are on high alert, as I said, with those extreme ratings.

01:47A total fire ban is in place for all of those areas as well, and so that's where the fire

01:55authorities are really focusing a lot of their attention on.

01:58And I should say as well, the most recent bushfire outlook that was posted late last

02:03month really highlighted the west of Victoria as a region of concern this summer, and so

02:09obviously with this heat now in December, there's a lot of, I guess, concern at what

02:14could happen in January and February.

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