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The Bureau of Meteorology had an "extreme heat-wave warning" in
place on Saturday for the remote Pilbara and Gascoyne areas of
Australia's largest state, warning temperatures there could hit
high forties degrees Celsius over the weekend.
In the Pilbara mining town of Paraburdoo, about 1,500 km (930
miles) north of the state capital Perth, a maximum temperature
of 47 degrees Celsius (116.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was forecast on
Saturday, more than six degrees above the average January
maximum, according to forecaster data. It was 42.7 C (108.8 F)
there at 11:00 a.m (0300 GMT).
Australia's highest temperature on record of 50.7 C (123.2 F)
was logged at the Pilbara's Onslow Airport on Jan. 13, 2022.
Saturday's hot weather lifts the risk of bush fires in an
already high-risk fire season amid an El Nino weather pattern,
which is typically associated with extreme events such as
wildfires, cyclones and droughts.
"Very hot and dry conditions combined with fresh southerly winds
and a fresh to strong west to southwesterly sea breeze will lead
to elevated fire dangers on Saturday," the weather forecaster
said on its website, regarding part of the Pilbara.
The warning comes after hundreds of firefighters earlier this
month battled an out-of-control bush fire near Perth amid
soaring temperatures, prompting evacuations.
Australia's last two fire seasons have been subdued compared
with the 2019-2020 "Black Summer" of bush fires that destroyed
an area the size of Turkey, killed 33 people, 3 billion animals
and trillions of invertebrates.
(Reporting by Sam McKeith in Sydney; Editing by Sandra Maler and
Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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