AUSTRALIA -- I normally focus on our weather, but things on the other side of the world are simply too hard to ignore. While we sit in a mild weather pattern here in Northern Michigan, much of Australia is baking in what are the hottest days that continent has EVER seen.

Of course it is summer down under (seasons are opposite of ours) but excessive heat is a major concern there. As an example, on Monday the average daytime high across Australia hit 40.33C, which is 104.59F. That was the average temperature over hundreds of thousands of square miles! This turned out to be the hottest ever temperature in Australia's history. The old record was 40.17C set back in 1972 according to Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.

While significant, this heat is expected to worsen Tuesday and linger well into next week across that continent. Major metropolitan areas like Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra along with Alice Springs will bake with explosive fire danger conditions in the Outback. It was only four years ago in February of 2009 that 173 people died and 414 injured in massive wildfires in similar weather conditions in Australia.

The all-time record high for Australia is 123.3F which could fall this week. 

Find more information at the Australian Bureau of Weather.