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CANBERRA - A baking flow of hot air pumping across Australia has gripped vast areas of the continent in a heatwave that has driven temperatures into the mid-40s and sparked bushfires in two southern states.
In the north, floods have isolated towns and cut the main Queensland-Darwin road, forcing drivers to camp out and blocking the flow of goods for as long as three weeks.
Ambulance services have issued warnings to parents of young children, the aged and the sick, and lifesavers have reported an increasing number of rescues as people flock to beaches to escape the heat.
Yesterday a 40-year-old man drowned at a beach at Coffs Harbour, in northern New South Wales, and on Tuesday a young boy drowned in a backyard pool in the Hunter Valley town of Muswellbrook, northwest of Newcastle.
NSW firefighters, warned of a dangerously dry and hot two months ahead, have imposed a total fire ban over much of the state.
Yesterday they were fighting a fire raging through inaccessible areas of the Morton National Park near Sydney, started by a lightning strike on Sunday.
Teams were using water-bombing aircraft, bulldozers and graders in temperatures touching 40C, and declared a state of emergency ahead of a predicted cool change today that could help contain the blaze.
Other units were fighting a large fire near Goulburn, southwest of Sydney, as well as 10 other, smaller, bushfires.
The Bureau of Meteorology warned of extreme fire danger in the state's Riverina region.
In South Australia, which last year suffered its 12th consecutive year of below-average rainfall, firefighters were battling large outbreaks in the Riverland region northeast of Adelaide, and near Gawler, to the city's north.
Little early relief is likely, with the nationwide heatwave expected to continue into next week, and serious doubts about the prospect of significant rain over the next three months.
The Bureau of Meteorology said even if rain did fall, it would come against a backdrop of a decade of drought and record high temperatures.
"The combination of record heat and widespread drought during the past five to 10 years over large parts of southern and eastern Australia is without historical precedent and is, at least partly, a result of climate change," the bureau said. Yesterday most main cities and inland towns continued to swelter.
Although Melbourne, Adelaide and Hobart enjoyed the relief of temperatures in the 20s, other capitals baked in the mid to low 30s, with thermometers in Sydney's western suburbs soaring to more than 40C.
Perth suffered its 10th consecutive day of temperatures in the 30s, with another sweltering week predicted.
And across Australia inland towns became almost unbearable: 47C in the northern WA town of Nyang, and temperatures in the 40s in many other centres across the continent.
In the north, brutal blue skies have been replaced by thunderheads that have deluged northwestern Queensland, forcing disaster declarations in eight regions and causing a damage bill so far estimated at A$12 million ($14.5 million).
A number of towns were cut off by rising waters, a number of areas have been evacuated, and flood warnings were yesterday still in force for 10 rivers.
Emergency supplies will be flown into Burketown in the Gulf of Carpenteria next week, and a number of roads have been cut.
