Black Friday Fires in Victoria, Australia (1939)

One of Australia’s worst natural disasters took place in January 1939, when bushfires broke out in the state of Victoria. Over the course of several days, fires burned nearly 5 million acres of land, killing 71 people, destroying thousands of homes and businesses, and ravaging entire towns. An extremely hot and dry summer had preceded the fires, and the day they broke out, temperatures in Melbourne soared to a record 114.1 °F (45.6 °C). How long was it before the city had a hotter day than that? Discuss

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