Bushfires, blackouts and five capitals above 30C — is this peak suffer season?

A RARELY seen run of scorching hot days is about to roll over Australia, bringing bushfires, blackouts and record-breaking heat.

IF YOU think you’re sweltering through the heat, spare a thought for the good people of Adelaide where it was still above 40C at 7pm on Wednesday.

While in outback towns, and even in Sydney where it will hit 39C on Saturday, we could be on the brink of a record breaking run of hot days.

With blackouts, bushfires and five of Australia’s capitals sweltering through highs north of 30C on Thursday, we may have just reached peak summer — or should that be peak suffer.

“It’s hot and horrid and I heard someone even use the world sultry. It’s not nice, it’s no tropical holiday,” Tina Donaldson, a forecaster with the Bureau of Meteorology based in Adelaide, told news.com.au.

“Yesterday we got to 42.4C in Adelaide and it wasn’t until midnight that we dropped down to below 30C so it’s been a hot night for most people.

“It’s going to be a similar day today with a forecast max of 42C and it’s pretty much all set to continue on Friday as well.”

The culprit is a stubborn northerly wind sucking hot air down from Central Australia across the state.

“Northern parts of South Australia have been in a heatwave for the last week. With Moomba going 13 days above 40 degrees they’re going to get close to breaking records,” she said.

The town in the north east of the state hit 46.6C on Wednesday. Today will be much the same.

It wasn’t just the heat causing misery, said Ms Donaldson.

“It’s very humid so everyone notices that and that reduces people’s ability to recover from the heat”.

Blackouts map across Adelaide at 7.23pm last night.

BLACKOUTS

On Wednesday night, the lights went out across Adelaide with heatwave conditions forcing authorities to impose load shedding.

About 40,000 properties were without electricity for about 30 minutes because of what SA Power Networks said was a direction by the Australian Energy Market Regulator.

But the blame game has already begun on whether the enforced blackout was even necessary.

Appearing live on Facebook for a question-and-answer session, Premier Jay Wetherill blamed the national energy market for the outages saying a gas-powered generation plant had not been required to come online.

“The rules of the energy market are broken,” he said. “We’ll be asking for changes.”

PERTH BUSHFIRES

Further west, bushfires have broken out.

More than 130 firefighters are continuing an all-night battle to bring a dangerous bushfire under control in Bedfordale, southeast of Perth. Around 125 hectares have been destroyed.

Department of Fire and Emergency Services incident controller Brad Miles said conditions were difficult for crews, but they were confident of containing the blaze.

“It’s quite hilly, some of it is forested country, some of it is granite-involved, so there’s a lot of challenges,” he told the ABC on Wednesday night.

Heatwaves are in store for much of south and eastern Australia.

MELBOURNE

Melbourne will top out at 37C on Thursday before a cool change this afternoon. Areas in the Wimmera and Mallee could reach up to 44C.

Emergency Management Commissioner Craig Lapsley says with the heavy rain Victoria received earlier in the week, firefighters will be on alert to battle grass fires.

“It’s a hot day and we’ve also got strong winds, so it’s bringing the fire danger up,” he told Melbourne radio station 3AW.

He’s advised tradespeople not to use grinders, welders and cutters because they could start a fire from the sparks.

The CFA is advising people to activate their bushfire plans and monitor the fire and weather situation.

SYDNEY PREPARES FOR HEATWAVE

Just two days after copping half a month’s worth of rain, Sydneysiders are set to be hit with another heatwave with a trio of days with highs above 35C.

Temperatures are forecast to soar past 34C in parts of the city’s west on Thursday. By Friday, the mercury is tipped to rise to 35C in the city and 40C in the west with a sizzling weekend of 39C on Saturday and 38C on Sunday.

The Bureau’s David Martin said a string of such hot days was unexpected in the Harbour City and hadn't been seen since January 1994.

If temperatures beat expectations, and exceed 39C for four days, a record run of heat, set in January 1960, could fall, he told Fairfax.

About 60 people join in the last dawn training session for the Burleigh Swim Run event held at Burleigh beach on the Gold Coast Picture by Scott Fletcher

RECORD BREAKING HEAT IN QUEENSLAND

An outback Queensland town experiencing an extraordinary run of 43C-plus temperatures could be about to endure its hottest February day ever. The mercury in Birdsville is tipped to reach 45C on Thursday and Saturday, while a top of 46C is expected on Sunday.

The town’s February maximum temperature record is 46.2C, which was only set last Friday.

The forecast means the town could also break Queensland’s February daily maximum record of 46.5C.

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Andrew Bufalino said hot air building in the atmosphere since the New Year had pushed up temperatures in Birdsville and many other parts of the state.

“We have had a stagnant weather pattern that has led to a significant pool of hot air over much of the interior of the country with no significant change of air mass,” he explained.

Heat records could also tumble in southern Queensland on the weekend, with temperatures as high as 12C above average forecast.

Mr Bufalino said records were most likely to be broken in Toowoomba and Applethorpe.

A top of 38C is forecast for Toowoomba on Sunday, 0.6C above its February temperature record.