SYDNEY
\nLarge swaths of Australia sweltered again on Sunday through a widening heatwave, which the national weather forecaster said raised the bushfire risk in an already high-risk fire season as the country endures an El Nino weather pattern.
\n\u201cExtreme\u201d heatwave alerts, the highest danger rating, were in place for a second day for parts of Western Australia and were extended to South Australia, while areas of Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory were under \u201csevere\u201d warnings, the forecaster said.
\nIt cautioned that in Western Australia, the nation\u2019s largest state geographically, the remote Pilbara and Gascoyne areas could hit the high forties Celsius (up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday.
\nIn the Pilbara mining town of Paraburdoo about 1,500 km (930 miles) north of the state capital Perth, a high of 48 C (118 F) was forecast, more than seven degrees above the average January maximum, according to forecaster data.
\nIt was 45.7 C (114 F) at 12:30 p.m (0430 GMT)
\nAustralia\u2019s highest recorded temperature, 50.7 C (123 F), was logged at the Pilbara\u2019s Onslow Airport on Jan. 13, 2022.
\nIn the West Australian town of Meekatharra, Royal Mail Hotel manager Alex McWhirter said the heat could \u201ccook you alive\u201d.
\n\u201cYou have the sun beating down from above, you\u2019ve got the hot ground heating you from below and it is quite a challenge,\u201d the 29-year-old English national said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure that I want to try and go to bed tonight in 50 degrees without an aircon.\u201d
\nOn the east coast, parts of New South Wales\u2019 capital Sydney were forecast on Sunday to reach 40 C, almost 10 degrees above the average January maximum. In the city\u2019s west, it was 37.9 C (100 F) at 3:30 p.m. (0430 GMT).
\nThe hot, dry conditions raised the risk of bushfires in some areas, the forecaster said, during the El Nino, which is typically associated with extreme phenomena such as wildfires, cyclones and droughts.
\nThe last two bushfire seasons in Australia have been subdued compared with the 2019-2020 \u201cBlack Summer\u201d when bushfires destroyed an area the size of Turkey, killed 33 people, 3 billion animals and trillions of invertebrates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SYDNEY Large swaths of Australia sweltered again on Sunday through a widening heatwave, which the national weather forecaster said raised the bushfire risk in an already high-risk fire season as the country endures an El Nino weather pattern. \u201cExtreme\u201d heatwave alerts, the highest danger rating, were in place for a second day for parts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n