AUSTRALIA has just endured its second driest June in more than a century as the country’s virtually rainless winter continues.

Australia’s heat waves, now an annual ordeal, have been expanding into new territory — like Tasmania, where more than 50 wildfires were burning as of Friday.

Australia has seen an unprecedented number of widespread, catastrophic transformations in response to extreme weather events.

Extreme heat events wreak havoc on marine ecosystems and will only get worse in coming decades.

Residents fled toward the waterside as winds pushed an emergency-level wildfire towards their homes. The town was shrouded in darkness from the smoke before turning an unnerving shade of bright red.