https://phys.org/news/2019-02-january-australia-hottest-month.html

Australia's scorching start to 2019—in which the mean temperature across the country for the first time exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit)—followed Australia's third-hottest year on record. Only 2005 and 2013 were warmer than 2018, which ended with the hottest December on record.

Heat-stressed bats dropped dead from trees by the thousands in Victoria state and bitumen roads melted in New South Wales during heatwaves last month.