Australia's heat in the NZ media

Australian media is capable to acknowledging climate change. The New Zealand media dare not mention the elephant in the room.

Australia's NSW east coast now in 'severe' fire danger as mercury soars

Stuff,

2 November, 2014

Drier than expected conditions in Australia have put Sydney and much of the New South Wales (NSW) east coast in severe fire danger, as the city experiences a "low intensity heatwave" on Friday afternoon.

A large mass of hot air moving across the state is driving temperatures up towards 40 degrees in some parts, fanned by strong winds above 30km/h.

 

At the peak, the mercury had hit 38.9 degrees at Sydney Airport, 37.6 degrees in Camden, 37.1 degrees at Observatory Hill and 38.8 degrees at Horsley Park. Statewide, White Cliffs in the far west, notched 43.3 degrees.

JAMILA TODERAS

The fire at Pierces Creek, near Canberra.

"The system is now also affecting coastal areas, including Sydney, with many areas forecast to see temperatures reach the high thirties on Friday, following a night of significantly above-average minimums," the Bureau of Meteorology said in a statement.

Bureau of Meteorology's manager of severe weather Simon Louis said such high temperatures this early in the season meant Sydney was experiencing a "low intensity heatwave".

NICK MOIR

Inside the Ku Ring Gai National Park, north of Sydney.

"One thing that our heatwave system does take into account is people's level of acclimatisation," he said.

"We do see that this early in the season, people aren't as acclimatised to the warm conditions, so we can get the heatwave classification at these lower temperature levels."

He said that while temperatures were high, it wouldn't be breaking any November records - though if it had come a couple of days earlier, it would have almost certainly broken October records.

WOLTER PEETERS

Locals cool off at Bents Basin in western Sydney.

The sea breeze that usually cools down the city's eastern suburbs was being held off by strong westerlies, so the city shouldn't expect a cool change on Friday afternoon.

Much of NSW including the metropolitan area can also expect warm conditions to continue overnight, before a cool change on Saturday morning, Louis said.

"Particularly for Sydney, we're really not expecting this cool change to reach … it will just get into the far south west of the state quite late [on Friday] evening. It will be ... early morning [Saturday] until that cooler air gets through."

Saturday morning will be warm, with an overnight low of 24 degrees ahead of a maximum in the city of 30 degrees.

FIRES BURN NEAR CANBERRA AND NEWCASTLE

 

Firefighters were already battling an out-of-control blaze south-west of Canberra on Thursday night and continue to fight it today. The fire is burning erratically at Pierces Creek, about 8km from the nearest suburb.

Early on Friday afternoon, the fire had burnt through 114 hectares, and nearby residents had been urged to activate their bushfire emergency plans. Horses were being moved out of danger and one school was evacuated as a precaution.

 

At 1.45pm, it remained at a watch and act level, but was burning erratically towards the suburb of Tuggeranong. There was no threat to property, and no evacuations have been ordered.

The Rural Fire Service issued a Watch and Act alert about 3pm on Friday afternoon for an out-of-control blaze burning at Freemans Waterhole near Lake Macquarie.

The fire was contained by about 4pm. While there's no threat to property now, smoke is visible from the M1 and drivers are urged to take caution.

 

In the nation's capital, the Bureau is warning of wind speeds of up to 90km/h on Friday afternoon, with average wind speeds at Canberra Airport of up to 65km/h, with a top of 30 degrees.

The NSW Rural Fire Service raised the fire danger to severe for the Southern Ranges, Illawarra, Greater Sydney and Hunter regions at lunchtime on Friday. Total fire bans are in place across those regions.

Wind gusts are expected to reach up to 80km/h in some areas, including Goulburn, adding to the propensity for dangerous bushfires.

"It's important on the first real hot and windy day [of the season] people take five minutes to discuss with their family what to do in case of a fire," RFS Inspector Ben Sheppard told AAP.

The RFS is keeping an eye out on a fire in the Wollemi National Park, north-east of Rylstone. No properties are under threat, however the blaze is expected to grow.

 

Multiple small grassfires are also being reported across the state.

 

On Thursday a number of areas set new maximum temperature records for this time of year, including Goulburn (32.2), Wagga (37.6), Albury (37.2) and Young (34.8).

The warm spell is expected to last until the middle of next week, when much of the state is forecast to receive some rain accompanied by milder temperatures. Sydney may collect as much as 35 millimetres of rain on Wednesday, the bureau predicts.

EXCEPTIONALLY WARM

Australia was "exceptionally warm" last month, with mean temperatures 1.83 degrees above the 1961-90 average, making it the fourth warmest October on record, the bureau said.

Minimum temperatures were the second warmest on record, behind only 2015.

Nationally, rainfall was 11 per cent higher than normal for the month. NSW posted its first above-average month of rain in 2018, collecting 10 per cent more than usual.

Temperatures remained on the warm side for NSW, with the state marking its third warmest October on record for mean temperatures, with readings 2.44 degrees above average.

For the first 10 months of 2018, NSW daytime temperatures are running at a record high.

For Sydney alone, average maximum temperatures were 0.7 degrees below average, the first sub-par reading for any month since March 2012. Minimum temperatures, though, were 1.4 degrees warmer than average, the bureau said.

While Sydney's October rainfall was twice the average at 167.6 millimetres, evaporation rates were almost as high at 160.6 millimetres meaning the rainfall deficient barely budged.

Elsewhere, the big dry has expanded beyond NSW and Queensland, with Tasmania recording its third-driest October on record as rainfall dived 60 per cent below average for the month.

Victoria was also dry, continuing its run this year of below-average monthly rainfall totals with less than half the usual October rain. By mean temperatures, it was also that state's fifth warmest October on record.