Australians will always remember "Black Saturday" as the day of the bushfires. Several days of extremely high temperatures - Melbourne recorded its hottest day ever, 48℃ (118℉) - in combination with low humidity and years of drought, on 7th February 2009 created an alignment of forces that produced huge bushfires. Severe northerly winds speeding up to 100 kilometres/hour swept the fires over the country, merging several large conflagrations. Hundreds of residents who stayed to defend their homes, or ignoring all warnings waited too long to evacuate them, died within the first ten hours.
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