Around 100,000 lightning strikes hit South Australia overnight, sparking major power outages and 146 fires across the state, local media reported on Wednesday.
The bush fires were fuelled by wild weather and warm, dry conditions but were all contained by Wednesday, according to the South Australia Country Fire Service.
The largest fire was reported to have burned through 95 hectares in Lake Gilles, some 278 kilometres north-west of the capital city Adelaide.
On Tuesday, parts of the state recorded temperatures well above 30 degrees Celsius, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) issuing severe storm warnings for the evening.
Winds reached up to 120 kilometres an hour at a Royal Australian Air Force base north of Adelaide.
At the peak of the storm, more than 32,000 homes were without power across the state, South Australia Power Networks said.
The bush fire season in South Australia generally starts in mid-November.
Australia’s 2019-20 devastating summer bush fire season was unprecedented in scale and harm.
It started in September 2019 following one of the country’s hottest and driest years on record.
A total of 33 people died, more than 3,000 homes were destroyed and 24 million hectares were burnt across the south and east of Australia. (dpa/NAN)
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