MELBOURNE: Millions of Australians have been warned to prepare for severe weather conditions as heatwaves and damaging winds swept across the country, reported Xinhua.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) issued severe weather warnings yesterday morning for damaging winds in the east coast states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria as well as South Australia (SA) and heatwave warnings for Queensland and the Northern Territory (NT) in northern Australia.
Maximum temperatures were forecast to exceed 35 degrees Celsius (C) along NSW’s densely-populated east coast yesterday and hit 39 degree Celsius in the state capital of Sydney, which would break the city’s October record of 38.2 degree Celsius in 2004.
The severe heat, and forecast damaging winds of up to 100 kilometres (km/h) per hour, prompted an extreme fire danger warning from the BoM for Greater Sydney and neighbouring regions.
NSW’s Health Minister Ryan Park warned people to avoid the outdoors and to look out for older friends and family, young children and pregnant women.
“We’re asking everyone to take steps to protect themselves from the heat by staying cool and hydrated,” he said.
It comes after Queensland and NSW both recorded their hottest October day on record on Tuesday, with the maximum temperature hitting 46.1 degree Celsius in Queensland and 44.8 degree Celsius in NSW.
Victoria and SA have not been affected by the heatwave, but the BoM said that both states could experience destructive wind gusts yesterday as a low pressure system that developed off Australia’s southern coast moves east. – BERNAMA-XINHUA
