Australia Sweats In Heatwave, Lifting Bushfire Risk Amid El Nino

Large swaths of Australia sweltered again on Sunday through a widening heatwave, which the national weather forecaster said raised the bushfire risk in an already high-risk fire season as the country endures an El Nino weather pattern.

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“Extreme” heatwave alerts, the highest danger rating, were in place for a second day for parts of Western Australia and were extended to South Australia, while areas of Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory were under “severe” warnings, the forecaster said.

It cautioned that in Western Australia, the nation’s largest state geographically, the remote Pilbara and Gascoyne areas could hit the high forties Celsius (up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday.