On Saturday, 4 January 2020 09:29:42 UTC, Norman Lynagh wrote:
Penrith, in the western outskirts of Sydney, recorded a max temp of
48.9° today, easily the highest temperature ever recorded in the Sydney
area. The previous highest was 47.8° at Richmond in January 1939.

Many other localities in NSW/ACT broke their all-time record max today,
including

Griffith 47.2
Narrandera 47.4
Wagga 46.0
Albury 46.1
Canberra 43.6

Is Australia on course to becoming uninhabitable by people of European
origin?

--


That last question so lends itself to a satirical answer but I shall refrain. The dryness, though, is something of a mitigating factor that is not present in equatorial regimes.

Tudor Hughes, Warlingham, Surrey.