"Catastrophic". That was the fire danger rating in many Australian regions as New Scientist went to press. The country is sweltering, with the average maximum daily temperature hitting 40.33℃ on Monday - beating the old record of 40.17℃set in 1976. "Previously, the only time we ever had a sequence above 39℃ was four days in 1973," says Karl Braganza of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. 'Today will make it seven days." The event is the result, Braganza says, of four months of record peak temperatures, a high-pressure system parked over the country, clear skies and the failure of the northern monsoon. All this comes against the backdrop of warmer global temperatures.
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