Australia's NSW sweats through heatwave, faces 'extreme' bushfire risk

16/3/2025 12:18

Australia's New South Wales on Sunday sweated in a heat wave that raised the risk of bushfires and prompted authorities to issue a total fire ban for state capital Sydney.



New South Wales, coming to the end of a high risk bushfire season that runs until the end of March, was a focus of a catastrophic 2019-2020 "Black Summer" of wildfires that destroyed an area the size of Turkey and killed 33 people.



On Sunday, the nation's weather forecaster said temperatures would be up to 12 degrees Celsius above average in some areas of the state, with temperatures in Sydney, Australia's most populous city, set to hit 37C.



At Sydney Airport, the temperature was already 29.3C at 9:30 a.m. local time, more than three degrees above the March mean maximum temperature, according to forecaster data.



The forecaster said on its website, gusty winds, "hot conditions and low relative humidity will result in extreme fire danger over the greater Sydney region."

The state's Rural Fire Service said on X that a total fire ban was in place for large swaths of the state including Sydney due to the forecast of "hot, dry and windy conditions".