Total fire bans remain in place in the far western district of New South Wales and eastern and south-eastern Queensland, with hot, dry conditions causing grass and bushfires throughout the states.
Forecasters say the heatwave could rival the record for Australia’s hottest spring day. The mercury in Birdsville, western Queensland, is forecast to peak at 43C, just shy of Australia’s spring record of 43.1C set in Roebuck, outside Broome in Western Australia, in 2003, also on 27 September. Brisbane could experience a record for the city on Thursday.
NSW rural fire crews contended with more than 100 blazes across the state on Tuesday, including in the Royal national park. The NSW Rural Fire Service said that as of 7.30am Wednesday morning, there were still 110 active fires, 35 of them not yet contained. Residents living in Waterfall and Campbelltown could expect to experience smoke, the fire service said.
A total fire ban is in place for the far western fire area, including the Bourke, Brewarrina, Broken Hill, Central Darling and Cobar areas.
In some areas of the far west of NSW, temperatures will exceed 40C, average wind speeds may reach 50km/h and the relative humidity will hover around 5%.
A forecaster, Rob Taggart, said there was a trough approaching from the south-west with strong and hot winds ahead of it. “Those winds are dragging a really hot air mass from central northern Australia,” he said.
“That’s bringing really hot conditions from out near the Northern Territory into the north-west of NSW.”
The fire danger level was rated as severe for the far western region and very high for the upper central west plains, north western and northern slopes districts.
In Queensland smoke will affect residents living in Birtinya on the Sunshine Coast. On Wednesday morning Queensland Fire and Emergency Services urged residents of the area to close windows and doors and, if suffering from respiratory conditions, to keep medications close by.
Fire bans remain in place in a number of local government areas stretching from the Gold Coast to Ipswich, the Lockyer Valley, Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast, Noosa, Gympie and South Burnett.
