Residents of western Victoria yesterday sweated through the worst bushfire conditions since the black summer of 2019-20, with multiple catastrophic and extreme fire warnings issued across the state – particularly in the Wimmera and Grampians regions. Temperatures reached more than 40C in parts of the state, with Country Fire Authority chief Jason Heffernan saying the high temps and strong winds created the “perfect recipe for a bad fire day”. Two emergency-level fires kicked off northwest and southwest of Stawell, forcing residents to evacuate or take shelter. The power was also out for about 500,000 customers after an outage at Victoria’s largest coal station. The temperature in Melbourne reached up to 37C before severe thunderstorms rolled in yesterday afternoon, bringing damaging winds, heavy rain and large hail. This video shows just how wild things became. A brolly wouldn’t save you there…