Catastrophic weather systems known as ‘fire clouds’, sparked by heat from the raging bush blazes outside Sydney, could see south west Australia hit by devastating lightning storms. The dramatic cloud formations have already been seen over some burning parts of the New South Wales bush last week. But a merging of the biggest wild fires into one ‘mega blaze’ could see temperatures... 

Australians still in the path of forest fires 140 kilometres west of Sydney were told on Saturday it was too late to be evacuated and they should take whatever shelter they could find. Lithgow, at the foot of the Blue Mountains in the south-eastern region, had lost nearly 200 homes in the firestorm that swept through Thursday. The blaze is the latest of dozens in an emergency that Rural Fire Service...