{{Record temperatures across southern Australia cooled Wednesday, reducing the danger from scores of raging wildfires but likely bringing only a brief reprieve from the summer’s extreme heat and fire risk.}}<\/p>\n
Australia had its hottest day on record Monday with a nationwide average of 40.33 degrees Celsius (104.59 degrees Fahrenheit), narrowly breaking a 1972 record of 40.17 C (104.31 F). <\/p>\n
Tuesday was the third hottest day at 40.11 C (104.20 F). <\/p>\n
Four of Australia’s hottest 10 days on record have been in 2013.<\/p>\n
“There’s little doubt that this is a very, very extreme heat wave event,” said David Jones, manager of climate monitoring and prediction at the Bureau of Meteorology.<\/p>\n
“If you look at its extent, its duration, its intensity, it is arguably the most significant in Australia’s history,” he added.<\/p>\n
Cooler conditions brought relief to firefighters, who were battling around 200 fires across Australia’s southeast, and gave them the chance to build earth breaks to try to contain the blazes. <\/p>\n
The risk from fire was expected increase later in the week as temperatures again rise.<\/p>\n
No deaths have been reported from the wildfires, although around 100 people haven’t been accounted for since last week when a blaze destroyed around 90 homes in the Tasmanian town of Dunalley, east of the state capital of Hobart. <\/p>\n
On Wednesday, police spokeswoman Lisa Stingel said it was likely most of those people simply haven’t checked in with officials.<\/p>\n
AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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