Extreme fire danger grips Australia’s southeast amid heatwave

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s southeast sweltered in a heatwave on Monday, raising the bushfire risk and prompting authorities to issue fire bans for several parts of Victoria state.

The extreme temperatures brought back memories of the catastrophic 2019-2020 “Black Summer” that saw fires destroy an area the size of Turkey, killing 33 people and billions of animals.

On Monday, the nation’s weather forecaster warned that the temperature could reach 41 degrees Celsius (105.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in Victoria’s capital Melbourne, more than 14 C above the city’s mean maximum temperature for January.

Authorities rated the fire danger at extreme, the second-highest danger rating, in five Victorian regions on Monday.

Dean Narramore, senior meteorologist at the forecaster, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp that the hot and windy conditions could spark “big fires” ahead of a cool change due in Victoria later on Sunday.

Elsewhere, the states of New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia, Queensland and the Northern Territory were under heatwave alerts on Monday, the forecaster said on its website.

In New South Wales, Australia’s most-populous state, Narramore said “low to severe heatwave conditions” were expected on Monday, forecasting the heatwave to intensify there on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)