Fires in Australia: heat record broken in Canberra, on alert

Australia still under threat of fire. Temperatures in Canberra hit a new record high for February on Saturday as fires threaten the capital, Météo France said on Sunday.

Authorities in Canberra placed the Australian federal capital on alert for the first time since 2003 on Friday because of the threat of forest fires.

42.7 degrees, a record for February

On Saturday, the thermometer climbed to 42.7 degrees Celsius, a record for February exceeding that of 42.2 degrees set in 1968, Météo France meteorologist Étienne Kapikian said on Twitter.

BREAKING! In #Canberra, summer 2019-2020 now holds the historical monthly heat records for each of the 3 months of summer ...

DEC: 41.1 ° C 21-12-2019 (> 39.7, 27-12-1938)
JAN: 44.0 ° C 04-01-2020 (> 42.8, 11-01-1939)
FEV: 42.7 ° C 01-02-2020 (> 42.2, 01-02-1968)

The temperature is also the third highest recorded in the city in all months, he added.

With the records recorded in January and December, the southern summer 2019-2020 will have been the hottest ever listed, according to him. The Australian meteorological office did not confirm this data immediately.

Regarding fires, the main threat comes from the fires that plague the Orroral valley, where 18,000 ha of vegetation have been devastated.

Another 80 fires in the south of the country

Authorities believe that this heat wave, accompanied by dry winds, creates conditions conducive to forest fires in parts of the states of New South Wales and Victoria. More than 80 fires are still raging in these two states.

The temperature in the city of Richmond in the state of New South Wales reached 46.8 degrees on Saturday, said the meteorologist from Météo France.

My Earth Newsletter

I'm registering

Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to allow you to receive our news and commercial offers. Find out more

At least 33 people have died in the fires that have ravaged Australia since September. An area of ​​more than 100,000 km2, larger than Portugal, has been reduced to ashes and more than 2,000 homes destroyed. Researchers estimate that more than a billion animals have been killed.