Australia rain forecast: Rain bomb drenches Melbourne – but deadly fires still rage on

Dr Karl Braganza, who heads the bureau’s climate monitoring, said these records were key influencing factors in the fire crisis.

He said: “2019 was consistently warm, but it was book-ended by periods of extreme heat.

“January last year was the warmest month Australia has ever recorded, while just a few weeks ago in December, we saw the Australia-wide record hottest daily average maximum temperature broken multiple days in a row.

“At the same time, rainfall deficiencies across large parts of eastern Australia have continued to increase, unfortunately exacerbating both drought conditions and the current bushfires.”

Australia’s unprecedented bushfire season has so far burnt through more than 10 million hectares of land.

source: express.co.uk