Australia sweats in heatwave raising bushfire risk amid El Niño
SYDNEY — Large swaths of Australia sweltered on Sunday in a heatwave, the nation’s weather forecaster said, raising bushfire risk in an already high-risk fire season amid an El Niño weather pattern.
Heatwave alerts at “extreme” level, the highest danger rating, were in place for a second day for parts of Western Australia and were extended to South Australia, while areas of Queensland, New South Wales and the Northern Territory were under “severe” warnings, the weather forecaster said.
It cautioned that in Western Australia, the nation’s largest state, the remote Pilbara and Gascoyne areas could hit high forties degrees Celsius (about 120 degrees Fahrenheit) on Sunday.
About 1,500 km (930 miles) north of the state capital Perth, in the Pilbara mining town of Paraburdoo, a maximum temperature of 48 degrees Celsius (118.4 degrees Fahrenheit) was forecast, more than seven degrees above the average January maximum, according to forecaster data. It was 31.1 C (87.9 F) there at 6:30a.m local time.
Australia’s highest temperature on record of 50.7 C (123.2 F) was logged at the Pilbara’s Onslow Airport on Jan. 13, 2022.
On the east coast, parts of New South Wales’ capital Sydney were forecast on Sunday to reach 40 C, almost 10 degrees above the average January maximum.
The hot, dry conditions raised the risk of bushfires in some areas, the weather forecaster said, as Australia endures an El Niño weather event, typically associated with extreme phenomena such as wildfires, cyclones and droughts.
The last two bushfire seasons in Australia have been subdued compared with the 2019-2020 “Black Summer” when bushfires destroyed an area the size of Turkey, killed 33 people, 3 billion animals and trillions of invertebrates. — Reuters
In September 2023, it started to turn over units of Torre Lorenzo Loyola, a premium residential development in Quezon City, and launched a sequel West Tower right beside it two months after.
In 2023, Torre Lorenzo also announced that Dusit Thani Lubi Plantation Resort, its flagship hospitality development in Davao de Oro, has started to use clean and renewable solar energy. It unveiled a 756-unit solar farm with an output of 415.8kWp, equivalent to 6,084 trees planted yearly. The energy generated would reduce carbon emissions by 251 metric tons annually.
As it continues to grow, Torre Lorenzo also strengthened its efforts to engage with the communities it does business with. Last year, it turned over a child development center and educational materials to the children of Barangay Pindasan, Mabini, Davao de Oro. It also partnered with Montessori educators Corazon Aguinaldo-Lim and Karen Ann Vera for a teacher’s training session for Pindasan’s child development workers.
Education has always been important to TLDC. In its continuing support for the educational needs of its host communities, Torre Lorenzo donated 500 bags with school supplies to public school students in Mandug, Davao City, and Pindasan, Davao de Oro.
TLDC forged partnerships to enhance community experiences. Last year, it partnered with De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde Multimedia Art students to help highlight Manila City’s historic and dynamic character on the walls of its co-living residences, lyf Malate Manila.
In Davao, an enhanced sequel to Crown Residences will be introduced to supplement the other developments in Tierra Davao where dusitD2 Davao and Dusit Thani Residence Davao are also located.
