Australia swelters on hottest day in its history… and it could get warmer

Australia endured its hottest day on record on Tuesday, reaching an average maximum temperature of 40.9C (105.6F) nationwide.

The temperatures beat the previous record of 40.3C  in January 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

But even that scorching new record could be beaten soon as a heatwave spreads across the country, worsening conditions for bushfires already raging along the east coast.

Forecasters, who are warning of "severe to extreme heatwave conditions", predict that more intense heat will come later this week. Temperatures are likely to peak in Victoria and South Australia on Friday. In Oodnadatta and Port Augusta, meteorologists believe it could be as hot as 48C.

Many heat records for towns and cities have already been comfortably broken. On Tuesday, several areas in central Australia recorded temperatures above 45C. On Monday, Perth, Western Australia’s capital, recorded three days in a row above 40C, a December record.

Scott Morrison, Australia’s prime minister, is under huge pressure over his government’s response to the bushfires that have seared the country in recent weeks, while hundreds of fires are still raging.

There is a total ban on fires in New South Wales, the southeastern state, while firefighters try to contain more than 100 fires.

Australian rainfall analysis

Some parts of Australia have been in drought for several years. The Bureau of Meteorology says that dry soil has prevented levels of evaporation that normally help to bring rain and cool the landscape.

Environmental experts have pointed to climate change as the cause of Australia’s rising heat. Three of the four hottest years in the nation’s history have occurred since 2013 – and all of them have occurred since 2004.