By ALENA HIGGINS
WATER bombers were called in to help extinguish a grass fire that broke out west of Warwick on Saturday afternoon.
Heatwave conditions fuelled the blaze on Condavale Drive, which was thought to be sparked by a metal grinder just before 1.30pm.
Flames licked perilously close to homes and a number of horses had to be evacuated from neighbouring Lyndhurst Stud.
A number of long-held maximum and minimum temperatures were eclipsed on Saturday and Sunday morning as dusk and dawn brought little reprieve.
Applethorpe smashed its hottest November day since 2009, reaching 35.4 degrees on Saturday, while Stanthorpe did the same, recording 37 degrees, surpassing its highest November temperature of 35.7 degrees recorded in 1996.
But it was Warwick that held the longest-standing record, breaking its November high of 39.3 degrees in 1968 with a maximum temperature of 39.8 degrees on Saturday.
While Texas failed to eclipse any maximum November temperatures on Saturday, reaching a balmy 41.5 degrees, on Sunday morning it notched up its warmest minimum November temperature on record with the mercury stubbornly refusing to drop lower than 26.6 degrees.
Its previous lower November temperature was 26 degrees in 1996.
Applethorpe and Warwick also sweated overnight, with the Rose City tossing and turning through its warmest November minimum on record, 23.4 degrees, up just 0.1 degree on its previous 1965 annals.
The temperature gauge halted its decent at a warm 22.5 degrees on Sunday morning in Applethorpe, smashing the previously-held record of 20 degrees in 1977.
Residents hoping for a cooler weekend this time around may be disappointed with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting temperatures in the mid to high 30s.
