Extreme heat and fire danger for south-east Australia

Australian Community Media

Possibly catastrophic fire danger period hitting Western and South Australia from January 22, 2026.

Transcript

00:00Possible record-breaking heat is going to bring severe to extreme heatwave conditions

00:06and also extreme to possibly catastrophic fire danger to parts of southeastern Australia over

00:12the next week. Let's start by taking a look at what happened yesterday. Over Western Australia,

00:18very hot conditions particularly through the Pilbara and the Gascoyne. Carnarvon reaching

00:2347.9 degrees. That is a January record for that location with records dating back to the 1880s.

00:30Perth got up to 40.7 degrees. Today though we're expecting slightly cooler conditions along the

00:37coast as a trough starts to move inland but these purple areas show areas in where we're forecasting

00:43maximum temperatures in the mid to high 40s and that's still continuing to see a lot of heat

00:48through parts of Western Australia. But as we move into tomorrow that trough is going to move

00:54across and drag that heat into eastern parts of Western Australia and also western parts of South

01:00Australia. On Saturday the trough will continue to move eastwards dragged by a cold front over the

01:06Southern Ocean and that's going to give a lot of heat over South Australia, Victoria and New South

01:12Wales. A top of 40 degrees forecast for Melbourne, 42 degrees for Adelaide. It's a little bit of a

01:18reprieve for the south coast on Sunday but the heat isn't going anywhere. It's going to linger over

01:23inland parts and also start to redevelop over southern parts of Western Australia. So as we go into the new

01:29week that heat will build again over South Australia, New South Wales and particularly north-western

01:35parts of Victoria. Looking at a top of 43 degrees for Adelaide on Monday. Into Tuesday that could be

01:43the peak of the day for north-western Victoria with 47 degrees on the forecast currently for Mildura.

01:50That would be a January record. For New South Wales it might actually be Wednesday that is the hottest day

01:56for many locations and again we could see some records falling. So with all this heat we are expecting heat

02:03wave conditions. These light yellow areas showing low intensity heat wave but it's really these orange

02:09areas we're expecting severe heat wave and the red where we're likely to see extreme heat wave that we

02:14want to focus on. So for the period from Friday to Sunday we're mostly seeing that it's severe heat

02:19wave focused on South Australia but looking at the period from Saturday through to Monday we see that

02:25heat wave extending across most of southeastern Australia. And for the period from Sunday through to

02:33Tuesday we start to see some of these red areas developing over northeastern Victoria, parts of New

02:39South Wales and even up into the Darling Downs in Queensland. And this is area of extreme heat wave.

02:45Now severe heat waves can be very dangerous for vulnerable people particularly those who are very

02:50young or very old, people with pre-existing medical conditions or who are pregnant. But the extreme heat

02:57wave conditions are very dangerous for everybody if you don't take precautions to stay cool.

03:04So how is this going to impact our fire dangers? Well with that heat over western Australia today we do

03:10see widespread high fire danger but with the trough moving through the south that is increasing the winds

03:16and giving us extreme fire danger over much of southwestern Australia today. Tomorrow we see that

03:23high fire danger pushing into eastern parts of western Australia but it's really on Saturday that we're

03:29going to see that fire danger really ramp up particularly over south Australia. Most of the state

03:35expecting high to extreme fire danger and the York Peninsula is also currently forecasting catastrophic fire

03:41danger. That means that any fires that start under those conditions will be almost impossible to fight.

03:48We do also see that extreme fire danger extending into parts of western Victoria on Saturday. And on

03:54Sunday we start to see that high fire danger extending right across Victoria and into New South Wales. We see

04:01extreme fire danger over northeastern parts of Victoria. Now remembering we do have some significant fires in the

04:07landscape already over northeastern Victoria. There's also some extreme fire danger over southern New South Wales

04:14including for the ACT. So what are the impacts of this heat? Well obviously increased risk of bushfires.

04:22The combination of heat and wind and particularly the very dry fuels from the heat that we've seen over

04:28previous weeks that does give us a very high risk of bushfires taking off and being very hard to fight. We also see

04:35the heat making it difficult to sleep and to stay cool and that can take a real toll on the body.

04:40So please take precautions. We also expect to see stress on power and infrastructure

04:45from both the heat and also the risk of fire over coming days.

04:51So with so much heat and fire danger, it's going to be really important to stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings

04:57on the Bureau's website and the BOM Weather app. Listen to all your local emergency services as they will be issuing warnings

05:03and total fire bans and please stay safe.

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