Locals are encouraged to download and setup the new 'Fires Near Me' app

Yesterday, December 17th 2019, Australia hit its highest ever recorded average temperature across the country - 40.9 degrees celsius.

Half of Australia's annual CO2 emissions (that's 250 million tonnes) have been emitted by their raging bushfires alone.

To find out more about what it's like living in these conditions, Dermot and Dave give Brian Whelan (Dermot's brother), who lives in Sydney, a call.

Brian describes the catastrophic conditions as "seriously scary", revealing that exposure to an hour of bushfire smoke haze is the equivalent to smoking 32 cigarettes. Scary indeed.

He continues by saying; "This [December] is what we would typically anticipate as the beginning of the fire risk season and this has been going since September. It's mad."

We also learn of the newly created Fires Near Me app that is being used to save thousands of lives.

Check out the chat in full by pressing the play button on screen.