MELBOURNE, Jan 26 (NNN-AAP) – Authorities have warned that, the south-east Australian state of Victoria is facing its most severe heatwave since 2009, with temperatures forecast to exceed record-highs.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) had the highest-level extreme heatwave warnings in place, for regions of Victoria and the neighbouring east coast state of New South Wales (NSW), as of this morning.
It said that, severe to extreme heatwave conditions would persist in Victoria, for an extended period, with maximum temperatures widely forecast to exceed 40 degrees Celsius.
According to BoM forecasts, the maximum temperature is expected to reach 44 degrees Celsius in Melbourne, tomorrow, before falling back to the mid-20s from Wednesday.
In the small Victorian town of Ouyen, 385 km north-west of Melbourne, the maximum temperature is forecast to hit 49 degrees Celsius tomorrow, which would surpass the state’s record of 48.8 degrees Celsius set in Feb, 2009.
Tim Wiebusch, Victoria’s Emergency Management commissioner, said at a press conference yesterday that, the heatwave would be the state’s most severe since 2009.
The 2009 heatwave in late Jan and early Feb was followed by the Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, one of Australia’s worst-ever bushfire disasters, in which 173 people were killed.
Emergency warnings remained in place today for five fires across Victoria, that have been burning since a severe heatwave earlier in Jan, that triggered a statewide bushfire crisis.– NNN-AAP