00:00A severe and long-lasting heatwave is going to bring extreme to possibly catastrophic fire danger
00:07and also the potential for record-breaking temperatures over southeastern Australia in
00:12the coming week. Let's start by taking a look at today's forecast. We want to focus in on these
00:17dark red and purple areas. That's where we're forecasting temperatures over 40 degrees. And
00:22we can see that the heat is mostly concentrated over eastern parts of Western Australia today
00:27and parts of South Australia. But as we go into tomorrow this trough is going to drag that heat
00:33into New South Wales and down to Victoria even as far south as Melbourne heading for a top of 40
00:39degrees. This trough will give a bit of a cool change to some coastal areas somewhere like Adelaide
00:45heading for 42 degrees with that cool change expected in the mid to late afternoon. The cool
00:51change will also arrive in the mid to late afternoon on the southwest coast of Victoria but for Melbourne
00:56it's probably not going to arrive until late at night if not the early hours of Sunday morning.
01:01So on Sunday we have seen that cool change move through so a bit of relief in the south but the
01:08heat hasn't gone anywhere it's just moved inland still very hot temperatures over inland New South Wales
01:14much of South Australia and even into southwest Queensland. Sydney heading for 33 degrees and Brisbane
01:2035. On Monday that cool change has moved up the coast bringing some relief to Sydney but still heading for 37
01:28in Brisbane but the main heat is now being dragged back down over South Australia 43 degrees over Adelaide
01:35again. And the next trough is now going to drag this heat back down over Victoria into Tuesday a top of 41
01:43degrees for Melbourne. This could well be the hottest day for parts of Victoria. Again records may be broken.
01:51Over New South Wales as we go into Wednesday that could well be the hottest day for New South Wales.
01:56Many places through inland New South Wales looking at potentially record breaking temperatures on
02:02Wednesday and the heat even lingers into Thursday. In fact it might not take until next weekend for us to
02:10see that heat flushed all the way out. Looking at our fire dangers now we can see that for today
02:18we have widespread high fire danger across South Australia with extreme fire danger in the Eastern
02:24Air Peninsula, the York Peninsula and the Mount Lofty Ranges. But it's really tomorrow we're going to see
02:29those fire dangers peaking over South Australia. Widespread extreme fire danger through the south reaching
02:35the north east. We're going to see that the north east is still very catastrophic over the York
02:39Peninsula. And catastrophic conditions means any fires that start will be almost impossible to control.
02:44We also see that extreme fire danger moving into eastern parts of Victoria. On Sunday the high fire
02:51danger extending across Victoria reaching extreme in the north east. Now we are lucky this weekend that we
02:57don't have as much wind over Victoria as we saw back on the 9th of January. But we're still looking at
03:04significant fire conditions over the weekend. Into Monday we see that extreme fire danger moving into
03:11parts of New South Wales as well. In terms of heatwave we have widespread heatwave warnings. Severe heatwave
03:18warnings across most of South Australia, much of New South Wales and also northern Victoria. And as we go
03:25over the weekend and into next week we'll see those warnings extending to parts of southern Victoria as well.
03:31We're going to continue to see those warnings lingering through the week as this is a very long lasting
03:37event and also see more extreme heatwave areas through parts of northern Victoria, parts of New South Wales
03:45and even up into southern Queensland. So in terms of impacts from this heat of course we are expecting
03:52increased risk from bushfires. Any fires will be very hard to control in these conditions and are likely to pose a risk to
03:59life and property. Risk to health and decision making. Heatwaves are our most dangerous severe weather and
04:07it's important to take precautions because not only is it a risk to health for vulnerable people but even
04:12healthy people make poor decisions after a few nights of bad sleep and trouble staying cool. And of course we're
04:20expecting stress on power and infrastructure networks not only from the heat but also from the risk of fire.
04:26So with so much going on it's going to be really important to stay up to date with the latest forecasts
04:31and warnings on the Bureau's website and the BOM Weather app. Your local emergency services will also
04:37be issuing warnings and fire bans so make sure you follow all their advice, stay safe and we'll see you in the next update.
04:44So
04:55you
04:57you
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