Australia remains on alert

Australia’s record-breaking heat wave has sent temperatures soaring, melting road tar and setting off hundreds of wildfires – as well as searing new colours onto weather maps.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology has added dark purple and magenta to its colour-coded weather forecasting map to represent temperatures of 51 to 54˚C, officials said.

Temperatures on the map were previously capped at 50˚C, represented by the colour black.

“In order to better under-stand what temperatures we might see... we introduced two new colours,” said Aaron Coutts-Smith, manager of climate services at the Bureau of Meteorology.

Forecast models have predicted a large area of temperatures of over 50 for next Monday, he added.

Australia’s average maximum temperature has exceeded 39˚C for a record-breaking seven consecutive days.

The previous record of four consecutive days above that level was in 1973.

The hottest temperature re­corded was in the town of Oodnadatta, where the mercury topped out at a scorching 48.2˚C – forcing the local petrol station to stop selling fuel after it started vapourising.