Sydney swelters in spring heat as authorities warn of extreme bushfire risk

Sydney is baking through an unusually hot spring day, with temperatures forecast to reach 33 degrees Celsius on Saturday, nearly 13 degrees above average. The heat has pushed the city’s bushfire danger into the “extreme” category and prompted authorities to ban residents from lighting fires.

The national weather forecaster said fresh to strong, gusty northwesterly winds would develop during the morning. Combined with dry, unseasonably warm conditions, those winds would raise fire dangers across the Greater Sydney region.

At Sydney Airport, the temperature had already reached 28.6 degrees Celsius by 11.30am, more than seven degrees above the September mean maximum, according to forecaster data. The city is home to 5.6 million people.

The heat arrived as a powerful El Nino weather pattern in the Pacific drives hotter and drier conditions across southern Australia during the September-November spring season. Forecasters expect the pattern to rank among the strongest in decades.

Australia, a country of about 27 million people that is prone to bushfires, has also seen climate change make extreme heat and fire weather more common. In January, thousands of firefighters battled fires in the southeast that destroyed homes, cut power to thousands of households and burned large areas of bushland.

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Fresh to strong and gusty northwesterly winds developing during the morning, combined with dry, unseasonably warm conditions, will result in elevated fire dangers across the Greater Sydney Region today.