South-Eastern Australia swelters in heatwave
Large swathes of southeast Australia continue to swelter under extreme heat, with the mercury above 40C at lunchtime in Melbourne and Adelaide.
Many NSW residents are tipped to cop temps in the 40s on Wednesday, while Tasmanians also sweat through unseasonably warm weather.
Victoria faces another day of extreme heat
A total fire ban has now been declared for tomorrow in the Victorian districts of Mallee, Wimmera, South West, Northern Country, North Central, celntral, West and South Gippsland and East Gippsland.
Lightning strikes have started more than 250 new fires across Victoria, as the state faces another day of extreme weather conditions.
Three emergency warnings were issued on Tuesday as the state sweltered through temperatures of up to 46C.
Gallery: Australian Open heatwave
The night didn't bring good news, with lightning strikes in northwestern and central Victoria starting 256 new fires.
Victoria's Fire Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said crews were assessing the blazes.
"Obviously as day breaks we'll assess where they take us, but that is not a good position to have - lightning move into the state and cause that number of fires overnight," he told reporters.
"That's not what we wanted, but that's the position we are in.
A total fire ban has been issued for the entire state for Wednesday.
Mr Lapsley said the driest part of the state was the region of central Victoria north of the The Great Dividing Range.
"Where the lightning struck is in the driest part. That's a bit of a challenge for us this morning and we will certainly be focused on that," he said.
Mr Lapsley urged Victorians to have a fire plan.
Firefighters stopped a blaze that threatened a historic homestead at Dromana on the Mornington Peninsula on Tuesday, but were unable to save a cafe.
Emergency warnings were issued on Tuesday for fires at Sunbury, Kangaroo Ground and Little River, but they were all brought under control.
Thousands of people were left without power overnight in Melbourne's inner north after equipment failure sparked outages.
At the Australian Open tennis a player hallucinated that he saw Snoopy on court before he fainted mid-match.
A ball boy collapsed and water bottles melted on court as the tournament sizzled in extreme heat.
Adelaide heats up again
Rolling blackouts could come without warning across South Australia as the heatwave puts intense demand on the state's electricity network.
Homes and businesses could lose power for 30 minutes at a time, with blackouts to roll across Adelaide's suburbs and country areas according to a pre-determined schedule.
The state government's energy market programs executive director Vince Duffy says it's still hoped that power cuts can be avoided.
"At this stage it looks like the general load shedding is unlikely but it's still a possibility," Mr Duffy said.
"There is a very tight supply balance across the Victorian-South Australian region predominantly associated with the extreme heat conditions.
"As temperatures rise we do have a very significant increase in electricity demand."
Meanwhile, a woman is in hospital with burns after her house was destroyed in one of about 350 bushfires across South Australia during the state's extreme temperatures.
Most fires were sparked by lightning strikes and at least 14 grassfires are still burning on Wednesday.
Severe fire danger ratings have been declared across the state.
On Tuesday night, the woman was taken to hospital after being burnt while trying to save her home at Rockleigh, near Monarto Zoo, south-east of Adelaide.
Leigh Miller from the CFS said firefighters were stretched, with about 350 blazes burning at one stage.
"We have not really seen the worst of the weather yet," he told ABC Radio.
Friday was a potentially very bad day, with significant winds predicted in very high temperatures.
The CFS is at a number of fires, including one at Flaxmans Valley Road, Wilton in the Barossa Valley.
The fire is now contained, but a large number of burning trees might pose a risk of the fire escaping control lines.
Other fires are burning on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula near Delamere, while the Rockleigh fire is still out of control.
Adelaide sweltered through 45C on Tuesday, just one degree short of its all-time high of 46.1C set on January 12, 1939.
The temperature is expected to hit 45C again on Wednesday, with 46C forecast for Thursday.
Authorities said 70 people presented to South Australian hospitals with heat-related conditions in the first two days of the heatwave.
Sydney to swelter
In NSW, Sydney was spared super-hot weather thanks to a coastal sea breeze that kept the temperature under 30C.
The temp in the CBD hit about 28C after lunchtime, with BoM forecasting a max of 30C.
However, it was much hotter in the city's west, with the bureau expecting the mercury to reach 39C at Penrith.
BoM's warned not to expect a cool change until Saturday.
Large parts of the state are suffering extreme heat, with the town of Deniliquin, in the Riverina, tipped to record a number of 44C days.
BoM put the heat wave blanketing the country's southeast down to a "very slow moving, high-pressure system sitting in the Tasman sea".
"It's been directing steady northerly streams for a number of days now, so it's been building a lot of heat in the interior of the continent," a BoM forecaster said.
