MELBOURNE, Oct. 22 — Millions of Australians were warned to prepare for severe weather conditions on Wednesday as heatwaves and damaging winds swept across the country.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) on Wednesday morning issued severe weather warnings for damaging winds in the east coast states of New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria as well as South Australia (SA) and heatwave warnings for Queensland and the Northern Territory (NT) in northern Australia.
Maximum temperatures were forecast to exceed 35 degrees Celsius (C) along NSW’s densely-populated east coast on Wednesday and hit 39C in the state capital of Sydney, which would break the city’s October record of 38.2C in 2004.
The severe heat, and forecast damaging winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour, prompted an extreme fire danger warning from the BoM for Greater Sydney and neighboring regions.
NSW’s Health Minister Ryan Park on Wednesday morning warned people to avoid the outdoors and to look out for older friends and family, young children and pregnant women.
“We’re asking everyone today to take steps to protect themselves from the heat by staying cool and hydrated,” he said. It comes after Queensland and NSW both recorded their hottest October day on record on Tuesday, with the maximum temperature hitting 46.1C in Queensland and 44.8C in NSW.
Victoria and SA have not been affected by the heatwave, but the BoM said that both states could experience destructive wind gusts on Wednesday as a low pressure system that developed off Australia’s southern coast moves east. (Xinhua)
