Australia has been told to brace for a rapidly increasing bushfire and wildfire threat as a heatwave sweeps across the southern part of the country.

The warning from the country’s Bureau of Meteorology  came as it published its preliminary key summary for Australia’s temperature, rainfall and water resources in 2025.

Climatology Specialist Nadine D’Argent said according to the preliminary summary, Australia experienced its fourth-warmest year on record in 2025, with temperatures 1.23 °C above the 1961–1990 average.

“This follows Australia’s second-warmest year in 2024,” D’Argent said. “South Australia and Western Australia both recorded their third-warmest years.

“Between January and March, and between October and December, large parts of Australia experienced heatwave conditions, reaching extreme severity at times.

“Australia’s warmest year was in 2019, when the national annual average temperature was 1.51 °C above average.”

12 months ago the BoM’s State of the Climate 2024 found that Australia’s climate has warmed by an average of 1.51 ± 0.23 °C since national records began in 1910.

The warming in Australia is consistent with global trends, with the degree of warming similar to the overall average across the world’s land areas.

In terms of rainfall the changing climate continues to have an impact.

“Last year, the national average annual rainfall was 7.8 % above the 1961–1990 average at 502.2 mm,” D’Argent explained. “Rainfall was below average for most of Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, southern and inland areas of New South Wales and large parts of Western Australia.

“Rainfall was above average for much of Queensland, northern and eastern parts of the Northern Territory, coastal areas of New South Wales and northern and some southern areas of Western Australia.

“Queensland had its wettest year since 2011 with rainfall 31 % above average, while Tasmania had its driest year since 2017 and South Australia its driest since 2019.”

Water resources remained challenging across the year for many states.

“Annual average soil moisture was above the 1911–2025 average across some northern and eastern parts of the country, but below the annual average for large parts of southern Australia,” D’Argent added. “Most of the country’s surface water storages decreased due to dry conditions and low inflows. However, surface water storage levels increased in northern New South Wales and the Menindee Lakes following above average rain in large parts of Queensland and coastal areas of New South Wales.”

The BoM has issued a heatwave warning which highlighted a rising risk of bush and wildfires as temperatures soar.

It said for most parts of Victoria temperatures will be in the low to mid-forties. Some inland areas through the north of the state may push towards 45 °C or 46 °C.

“it is also worth noting that we do have some fresh northerly winds on the forecast, which will help to drive up the fire dangers across the state. High Fire Dangers for most areas, but we could see Extreme Fire Dangers coming through for the warmer areas,” the BoM warned.

The organisation said the threat will extend from midweek into Friday across Victoria, New South Wales and Southern Australia with several days of extreme heat.

“Our main concern is the three-day period running Wednesday through Friday,” forecaster Dean Narramore told the media. “We’re likely to see extreme heatwave conditions over a huge part of NSW and northern Victoria, practically everywhere between Melbourne and Sydney and extending well inland,” he added. “It is looking like the most significant burst of heat for southeastern Australia, particularly in terms of multiple days in a row of mid-40 temperatures, since the summer of 2019-20.”