The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (Bom) said individual December temperature records had been broken in a number of places – with temperatures in the southern city of Adelaide hitting 45.3C.
Nullarbor, also in southern Australia, reached the scorching temperature of 49.9C.
Bushfires have been raging in Australia for months, killing six people, destroying hundreds of homes and burning millions of hectares of land.
The crisis – worsened by tinder-dry conditions from a severe drought.
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