Australia weather: heat records broken in Sydney during heatwave – as it happened

10 Feb 201702.17 EST

Records broken, power crisis averted

Elle Hunt

Here’s the wrap of the day.

• Much of NSW, the ACT and QLD sweltered in the mid-30s for much of today ahead of similar extreme heatwave conditions forecast for the weekend
• Sydney Airport recorded its hottest February day with 42.9C at 2:24pm, exceeding the previous high of 42.6C set in 1980
• Observatory Hill in Sydney set a new record for the number of consecutive days above 35C; several parts of Sydney exceeded 40C, while Penrith recorded 44.5C
• Though the Australian Energy Market Operator warned of blackouts forced by a shortfall in electricity supply in NSW, ACT and SA, there was no significant loss of service. The small number of outages reported by Ausgrid this afternoon were attributed to a local network fault
• The Tomago aluminium smelter near Newcastle shut off its three potlines for a period late on Friday afternoon to reduce its electricity usage, as requested by the energy provider AGL and AEMO
• In Canberra, the Senate inquiry into the resilience of electricity infrastructure in a warming world debated the Australian energy network’s reliance on coal, while the federal and SA governments sparred over what was to blame for the loss of power to 90,000 homes in the state on Wednesday
• An out-of-control grass fire in Georges Plain, Bathurst, was contained by firefighters
• A statewide fire ban is in place over the weekend for NSW, many national parks have been closed and the Randwick races have been postponed due to the extreme weather conditions forecast
• Elswhere in Australia, Perth recorded its second-wettest day in history … and snow is forecast for some parts of Tasmania over the weekend

Thanks for following along with our coverage, and if you’re weathering the heatwave in Australia, take care this weekend.

Gold Coast beaches are expected to reopen on Saturday as a heatwave sweeps southern Queensland.

Dangerous swells forced the closure of more than a dozen beaches on Friday, delivering a blow to those wanting respite from the heat.

Beaches at Surfers Paradise, Staghorn Avenue, Elkhorn Avenue, South Narrowneck, Narrowneck, Breaker Street, Broadbeach and Miami remained closed late on Friday afternoon.

However Gold Coast City Council anticipates beaches from Burleigh to Rainbow will reopen on Saturday morning.

“Lifeguards and lifesavers will check the beaches north of this area in the morning prior to making a decision,” a council spokeswoman said.

However, anticipated tidal surges in the morning may delay the flags going up in some areas.

The mercury is expected to reach 34C on the Gold Coast on Saturday as heatwave conditions begin to grip southern Queensland.

Here’s a full report from AAP on the power cut to the Tomago aluminium smelter near Newcastle.

Energy provider AGL has cut power to an NSW aluminium smelter as the state tries to manage record demand for electricity.

The Australian Workers Union has warned the move could “batter” the smelter but AGL says the cut was required to ensure power was kept on in “schools, homes and other small businesses”.

The Tomago smelter uses 950 megawatts a day – about 12% of the state’s electricity – and is AGL’s largest single customer.

The smelter’s three pot line are being shut down sequentially for 75 minutes each from 3.45pm on Friday, Tomago Aluminium chief executive Matt Howell told AAP.

“Our concern is that this was done in the hottest part of the day when the market operator AEMO ... said they only needed us to curtail load for a maximum of three hours. That’s one hour per pot line.”

Workers have donned special suits and are labouring in 80C heat in the smelter on Friday evening to save the plant’s equipment.

AGL defended the move saying it had “certain contractual rights” to interrupt electricity supply at the smelter.

“If power to the smelter is not curtailed, schools, homes and other small businesses will suffer a loss of power at the peak periods of demand this (Friday) afternoon,” an AGL spokesman told AAP.

“This procedure has been implemented previously without adverse effect in similar circumstances to those that exist today.”

But Howell says it’s incorrect to say there’s been “no harm done” in the past.

The union argues workers will need to pull out all stops to save the plant’s equipment and “they may not be successful”.

An outage at the Portland smelter in Victoria in 2016 destroyed millions of dollars worth of equipment, AWU national secretary Daniel Walton said in a statement.

Australian summer.

My colleagues, Michael Slezak and Dave Fanner, have put together this video explainer outlining why there’s been the risk of power shortages today.

The temperature in Sydney approaching 6pm AEST is a still-sweltering 32.8C. It can expect a forecast high of 39C tomorrow.

Adelaide is at 39.8C, with a forecast high of 34C for Saturday.

Canberra is still at 40.2C with a “hot and mostly sunny” forecast of 41C ahead.

Brisbane is 29.1C now and can look forward to a high of 36C tomorrow.

Looks like there’s no need for load shedding.

Saturday’s Randwick races have been postponed due to the extreme weather forecast for Sydney. Racing NSW and the Australian Turf Club made the call out of concern for the welfare of horses and punters.

Racing NSW chief executive, Peter V’landys AM, said he had been in communication with the Bureau of Meteorology as to the likely conditions.

“Racing NSW and the ATC believed that animal welfare and the welfare of the participants should be the only consideration when making this decision.”

The meeting has been postponed to 13 February, with further details to come.

Ten News is reporting that 11,000 homes in Strathfield and Burwood are without power. Ausgrid says it was due to fault on the local network, not load shedding as a result of excessive demand over heat, and that most customers have had services restored.

About 900 customers at The Entrance North, NSW, are without power in an unrelated outage. Ausgrid crews are investigating what caused electricity to be lost, and it should be restored by 6:30pm.

This shows the rising demand in parts of NSW over the course of the day as recorded by Ausgrid.

Questions have been raised over why two units at a major NSW power plant are not operational as the state faces a potential power crisis.

AGL Energy confirmed to AAP that two of the four units at its Liddell power station had been shut down due to leaks in boiler tubes, which can force outages without warning.

AGL expected one of the units to be up and running by late Saturday night but the second would not be functioning until late next week.

Liddell power station was purchased by AGL Energy from the NSW government in 2014. The AGL Macquarie network produces approximately 12% of the power for eastern Australia.

Labor leader Luke Foley demanded an explanation from the Berejiklian government earlier today.

“We’ve got the energy minister out there now on radio telling people to turn off their air conditioners, to turn up the temperature in their refrigerators, just to keep the lights on,” Foley told reporters. “What he hasn’t told us is that only two of the four units at the Liddell power station are operational.”

Energy minister Don Harwin said it was common for coal-fired power stations to have transient faults.

“This is the nature of a coal fired power stations,” he told reporters in Sydney. “Lidell is playing its part and its owner is playing its part in ensuring that we get through today in good shape.”

Penrith earlier recorded a temperature of 44.5C.

Enjoy a high of 21C in Tasmania on Saturday.

Meanwhile, in Perth:

A major flood warning has been issued for Northam, east of the city, with people told to prepare to evacuate. Rapid and powerful flooding is expected in the Avon River.

Minor flooding is also predicted for the Perth metropolitan area, due to rising waters in the Murray and Swan River catchments as unusually heavy summer rain hits WA’s south.