Daily US Times: The Australian city of Sydney has recorded its hottest November night on record on Sunday, with daytime temperatures of 40C.

Sydney recorded a minimum overnight temperature of 25.4C.

The heat has prompted the New South Wales (NSW) Fire Service to issue a total fire ban for most of the north-eastern and eastern parts of the state.

Firefighters are battling dozens of wildfires in NSW. Temperatures over the weekend have also soared in other parts of Australia.

These included Victoria and South Australia.

Local reports said evening temperatures at Sydney Airport have now dropped to 25C at 17:30 (06:30 GMT). From Tuesday, hotter weather is expected again despite the official start of summer still being a few days away.

On Friday, Andrew Watkins, of the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) noted: “November has been quite unusual in many ways. We have only seen about half our normal rainfall and it is quite possible it will be one of our hottest Novembers on record.”

It is the first weekend of significant bushfire activity since the end of last year’s intense bushfire season on record, though not the country’s most deadly. The 2019-20 bushfire season saw fires sweep across 24 million hectares of land.

The blazes affected every state of the country, destroyed over 3,000 homes, and displaced or killed nearly three billion animals. At least 33 people were killed in that bushfire.

The health department of New South Wales has reminded people to keep to social distancing regulations in order to stop the potential spread of coronavirus.

You may read: UK to pilot blood test that may detect 50 types of cancer