All-Time Record Highs Across S. Australia, Victoria Approaching 50C (122F); Overnight Low In Adelaide Was 95F
Australia’s southern states are scorching in extreme heat that could break temperature records in Victoria and South Australia on Tuesday. January and all-time records were forecast to be set in both states, with temperatures approaching 50C across inland areas, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
At Ouyen and Mildura in north-west Victoria, temperatures of 49C were forecast for Tuesday. If reached, they would break the state’s all-time temperature record of 48.8C, set in Hopetoun on Black Saturday in 2009. On Tuesday afternoon, temperatures exceeded 48C at four Victorian observation stations, with new records to be confirmed by the BoM. In Adelaide, the mercury hit 40C before 9.30am on Tuesday, after overnight lows of 35C, BoM observations showed.
EDIT
“There are biological limits to temperatures that we can survive,” (Ed. - cardiologist Arnagretta) Hunter says. “How long is it safe to be outside at 49C? I think the answer is: it’s not safe to be outside at 49C for any protracted period of time.”
Extreme heat in parts of India and Pakistan, where temperatures have exceeded 50C, has led to hundreds of deaths. “Even short periods of time in that 50C-plus environment can lead to dehydration; the heart’s working hard,” Hunter says. “This sort of heat stress can provoke a heart attack, it can provoke an arrhythmia – rhythm abnormalities, it can provoke circulatory collapse.” In Victoria, the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires killed 173 people. “That was catastrophically bad,” Hunter says. But, she points out, the heatwave that preceded it – during which a new state temperature maximum was set – killed more than twice as many, resulting in an estimated 374 excess deaths.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/27/what-happens-to-the-human-body-in-49c-heat-australians-are-finding-out