Australians sweltering through heat wave

Australia looks set to sweat through one of its hottest Decembers ever, the national weather bureau said on Friday, prompting fire bans, health warnings and big crowds trying to find different ways to cool off -- be it the beach, the local pool or an ice rink.

As the country's hottest town, Marble Bar in the remote northwest, endured its warmest day ever, forecasters said the heat would spread southeast where the big cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide would endure monthly average temperatures up to 16 degrees Celsius higher than usual.

The capital, Canberra, was bracing for its hottest December day on record -- 39C (102F) -- on Saturday.

December is the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere summer. January and February can be even hotter.

For the four-fifths of Australia's 25 million people who live on the coast, the summer typically means lazing on the beach, watching cricket or both.

But the unusually high temperatures add to a sense of exhaustion for a farm economy already reeling from a year of drought.

The Bureau of Meteorology put the hot spell down to a combination of hot air being blown from the northwest toward the densely populated southeast, where a "blocking" high off the coast was stopping cooler winds from moving it on.

The bureau's "extreme heatwave" warning, its highest category, includes Sydney for the next three days.

SS