Extreme heat and bushfire risk across Australia’s south-east on Christmas and Boxing days as Grampians blaze rages | Bushfires

A scorching blast of hot weather will intensify across Australia’s south-east bringing extreme fire dangers and total fire bans from Christmas onwards.

South Australians will swelter on Christmas Day with Adelaide set to record its hottest Christmas since 2016, as temperatures reach the high-30s to early 40s across the state.

Parts of the state face extreme fire dangers with total fire bans declared in the Mount Lofty Ranges and the west coast region on Wednesday.

South Australia is in one of the driest periods on record, the Country Fire Service chief officer, Brett Loughlin, said, warning fires can spread rapidly.

“All we need is heat and wind to combine to create conditions for total fire bans and high-risk fire weather,” Loughlin said.

The state’s premier, Peter Malinauskas, has urged people to enjoy the festive season but to act sensibly and cautiously if they are in bushfire zones.

Extreme fire risks will shift towards the state’s east and across the boarder on Boxing Day as a cool change sweeps in from the west.

Victoria faces its worst fire risk since 2019’s black bummer, with extreme fire dangers in all but one region, leading to a total fire ban for the state on Boxing Day.

After a dry, sunny and warm Christmas, Victorians should expect to see temperatures to rise into the 40s on Thursday, Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Sarah Scully said.

High temperatures bring increased risk of serious heat-related illnesses, including heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, Ambulance Victoria emergency management director Dale Armstrong warned.

Heat stroke is fatal in up to 80% of cases.

“Most at risk are elderly people, young children and those with medical conditions, however heat and heat-related illnesses can affect anybody,” Dale said.

Victorians are being urged to prepare for outages, with provider AusNet warning power faults could be triggered to prevent bushfires starting.

“If a fault occurs on Thursday, it may mean longer outages as we need to do additional checks and patrols to make sure it’s safe to turn the power back on,” a spokeswoman said.

Bushfires were continuing to burn out of control at the Grampians national park in Victoria’s west while another has been contained at Bullengarook in Melbourne’s north-west.

The Country Fire Authority’s chief officer, Jason Heffernan, warned strong winds could make fighting blazes challenging.

“We did not see those winter rains. We didn’t see those spring rains, which has led to the bush land areas being exceptionally dry,” he said.

As a cool change washes over Victoria on Friday, the extreme fire dangers are expected to push into New South Wales.