{"id":487363,"date":"2026-02-20T09:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487363\/"},"modified":"2026-02-20T09:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-20T09:44:07","slug":"the-heat-suffocates-the-fires-rage-even-by-australian-standards-this-summer-is-brutal-environment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/487363\/","title":{"rendered":"The heat suffocates, the fires rage \u2013 even by Australian standards, this summer is brutal | Environment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australians are no strangers to blistering weather \u2013 being a \u201csunburnt country<\/a>\u201d of \u201cdroughts and flooding rains\u201d is baked into our national identity. But since the 2019-20 bushfires, which burned through an area almost the size of the UK, and killed or displaced 3 billion animals<\/a>, the arrival of warmer weather each year is accompanied by dread. This summer has brought punishing extremes of heat and fire that are brutal even by Australian standards.<\/p>\n

More, after this week\u2019s most important reads.<\/p>\n

Essential readsIn focusFirefighters working after a bushfire near Alexandra, Victoria, on 10 January. Photograph: Michael Currie\/Reuters<\/p>\n

In the first week of January, the country\u2019s south-east experienced the most significant heatwave since the 2019-20 \u201cblack summer<\/a>\u201d. Major cities sweltered: it reached 41C (106F) in Melbourne and 43C in Adelaide. In other parts of the country, the mercury climbed north of 45C.<\/p>\n

The hot, dry weather was ripe for fanning flames. On 9 January, in conditions rated as \u201ccatastrophic\u201d, crews attended almost 200 fires in the southern state of Victoria. Volunteer firefighters in the towns of Longwood<\/a> and Harcourt<\/a> fought flames that would eventually raze their own homes. Some of the blazes would burn for more than a month<\/a> before being brought under control.<\/p>\n

At the end of January, climate scientists identified that the extreme heatwave had been made five times more likely<\/a> by warming from greenhouse gas emissions. No sooner had they published their findings than the heat was upon us again \u2013 in a new blast that rewrote the records. Temperatures in the opal-mining town of Andamooka (population: 262) in South Australia reached 50C \u2013 only the eighth time in recorded history that has happened anywhere in Australia.<\/p>\n

In Victoria, the state\u2019s all-time heat record was broken at two locations, reaching 48.9C. In Melbourne, where I live, parts of the city hit 45C. Stepping outside on that day, 27 January, felt \u2013 and I don\u2019t use this word lightly \u2013 apocalyptic. The air was smothering, suffocating \u2013 like blasting one\u2019s eyes and open mouth with a hairdryer. The heat was searing, especially in direct sunlight (where temperatures can reach up to 15C higher<\/a> than official observations).<\/p>\n

We know there are biological limits to what the body can withstand. In Australia, extreme heat is the most common cause<\/a> of weather-related hospitalisations, and kills more people than all other natural hazards combined. Despite the oppressive temperatures, major sporting events such as the Australian Open continued, albeit with extreme heat protocols in place. It raises the question: how feasible will it be to continue holding such events in summer, given the escalating frequency and severity of extremes due to global heating?<\/p>\n

Though the season is not yet over, an accounting of this summer\u2019s costs has begun. Across Victoria, 435,000 hectares (1m acres) of land have burned, destroying more than 900 structures. Analysis<\/a>, using data from the Insurance Council of Australia, has found that fires, floods, heatwaves and storms have resulted in about $1.6bn (\u00a3833m) in insured losses this summer so far. (I neglected to mention earlier that between the heat and fires, there were also: seven cyclones; flooding in several states, including flood waters that swept cars out to sea in Victoria; and an algal bloom along the South Australian coast, which has persisted for nearly a year.)<\/p>\n

We also still don\u2019t know the full extent of the impacts on Australian wildlife. In extreme temperatures, flying foxes have been dropping dead<\/a> in their thousands. Some plant species are feared extinct. Images have emerged<\/a> \u2013 as they did in previous summers<\/a> \u2013 of thirsty koalas lapping up water provided by humans \u2013 the iconic marsupials usually get most of the water they need from the moisture in the gum leaves they feed on.<\/p>\n

The heat this year has been tempered by a La Ni\u00f1a, but Australians will have to get used to increasingly punishing summers. The light at the end of the smoke haze is that Australia has made progress in transitioning away from its infamously coal-dependent electricity system. Through the hot weather, the electricity grid coped with high demand, thanks to the rapid rise of solar power. The week of the second heat event, solar provided 30% of all electricity<\/a> in the country\u2019s main grid; in the last three months of 2025, renewables contributed more than 50% for the first time.<\/p>\n

But the centre-left Labor government continues to back opening and exploring for new fossil fuel projects, mostly for a still-booming fossil fuel export industry. It has approved 33 coal and gas developments or extensions since it was elected in 2022. Just last week, it approved the expansion of a coalmine<\/a> estimated to release about 236m tonnes of CO2 over its lifetime \u2013 equivalent to almost half of Australia\u2019s current annual footprint.<\/p>\n

The response from conservationists was understandably sharp: one described the government as \u201cburning our future and burning their own credibility\u201d. As in other parts of the world, the pressure to turn away from fossil fuels will only keep growing; whether politicians can withstand the heat remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Read more:<\/p>\n

To read the complete version of this newsletter \u2013 subscribe to receive Down to Earth<\/a> in your inbox every Thursday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australians are no strangers to blistering weather \u2013 being a \u201csunburnt country\u201d of \u201cdroughts and flooding rains\u201d is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-487363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}