A heatwave has two states on high alert for bushfires as another braces for a tropical cyclone to make landfall.
Total fire bans have been declared across South Australia and Victoria on Saturday, with temperatures in the coming days to rival those recorded in the Black Summer of 2019-20.
SA’s Yorke and Eastern Eyre peninsulas face catastrophic fire danger, making blazes almost impossible to contain if they break out.
Major fires will test the state’s firefighting capabilities, SA Country Fire Service chief officer Brett Loughlin warned.
“In those sorts of circumstances, not everyone will see a fire truck, not every call to triple zero will get the response that you would normally see,” he told reporters.
Victoria is forecast to record temperatures between 38C and 44C statewide, with wind gusts expected to peak at 70km/hr in some areas.
The mercury in Adelaide is predicted to peak at 43C, while Melbourne is set to top 40C.
Play at the Australian Open on the four largest courts will start an hour earlier to beat the heat, while the Tour Down Under’s iconic Willunga Hill stage has been dropped due to the bushfire danger.
Bushfires at Walwa and Dargo in northeast Victoria that were sparked on January 9 in scorching conditions are still burning at watch and act level.
There was potential for new fires to start and spread quickly in forecast conditions, Victorian CFA chief officer Jason Heffernan said.
“We understand it is a long weekend, and many Victorians will be enjoying the great outdoors,” he said.
“But we will be declaring several total fire bans over the course of this heatwave event and with that comes shared responsibility.”
Shallow winds will bring some reprieve to Australia’s southeast from Saturday afternoon, with the mercury set to rise again from Monday.
Parts of Victoria will edge towards 50C on Tuesday, with a forecast top of 48C at Ouyen, about 400km northwest of Melbourne.
That’s 0.8C off the state temperature record, set on Black Saturday in 2009.
Moderate fire danger ratings are in place across inland NSW, with extreme ratings expected in the Northern Slopes and Central Ranges from Monday.
Temperatures in Dubbo will hover in the low-to-mid 40s over the next week, with similar conditions across the regions.
People in a remote area east of the Western Australian town of Mandurah were told to flee on Friday evening as bushfires burned at emergency level.
Off the coast of northern WA, a tropical low was forecast to become a category one tropical cyclone.
It will be named Tropical Cyclone Luana and is tipped to intensify to a category two on Saturday morning, before likely crossing between Broome and Kuri Bay.
Communities in the warning area have been told to prepare for potential wind gusts up to 130km/h, heavy rain, flash flooding and dangerous storm tides.