World

Heatwave record broke in Melbourne

by mudricky | January 30, 2009 at 05:33 pm

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If you fancy a break somewhere hot this time of year, you would probably want to go to Australia.

Right now they are having record breaking heats as you can read in the story below from ABC.

Melbourne has experienced a record heatwave, with three days over 43 degrees this week and the CBD reaching 44.2 degrees at 2:30pm AEST.

Weather bureau spokesman Mark Williams says there has not been a heatwave of this severity since the keeping of records in the mid-1880s.

"It's the most intense heatwave in Melbourne that we've ever observed," he said.

"They get those sort of temperatures in northern Victoria and central Australia all the time, but it's new for Melbourne."

Laverton and Moorabbin airport have recorded 44.5 degrees and it has hit 45 degrees at Avalon.

Train operator Connex says 310 rail services have been cancelled across Melbourne today, as the system tries to cope with the hot weather, and further delays and cancellations are again expected during the evening peak.

Crews have been hosing down train tracks during the day to try to ease the problem of expanding and contracting rails.

More than 1,000 services have been cancelled since Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile in the La Trobe Valley, temperatures have reached 44.1 degrees, while Mildura has had 42.7 degrees.