Burn, Aussies, burn!

Sydney, Australia’s largest city, posted its highest temperature ever recorded today, reaching 45.8 degrees Celsius (114.4 degrees Fahrenheit), as wildfires burned in five of the nation’s states, destroying homes.

The record, reached at 2:55 p.m. local time today, eclipses the previous high of 45.3 degrees on Jan. 14, 1939, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Canberra, the national capital, posted its second-highest temperature of 41.6 degrees Celsius.

“Quite simply, Sydney is melting today,” Corey Watts, regional projects manager at The Climate Institute, a independent research organization funded by philanthropy seeking a zero-carbon global economy, said in an e-mailed statement. “This kind of weather cannot be taken lightly. These heat waves can have serious impacts on human health and wellbeing.”

[link to www.bloomberg.com]