Australia can be a pretty hot place in the height of summer. The country’s growing “dome of heat” however, which has helped break temperature records and ignite bush fires nationwide recently, has had another unanticipated effect – it’s broken the temperature range used by The Bureau of Meteorology.

So what does that mean? Well, as spotted by The Age, the Bureau has been forced to add two new colors, purple and pink, to its various maps and visualizations in order to extend its temperature range to 54 degrees celsius, up from 50 degrees.

Now, you would think that the new cap has some breathing room, given the country’s all-time record high of 50.7 degrees which was set way back in 1960 at Oodnadatta Airport, South Australia. However, as you can see from the image above which forecasts the temperature of the country for next Monday, the Bureau is already using a deep purple, representing at least 50 degrees in the heart of Australia.

The first week of 2013 has featured some of the hottest days on record for Australia, setting a new national average maximum of 40.33 degrees celsius.

In other words, it’s hot in Australia. But it’s about to get even hotter.

Image Credit: Marianna Massey/Getty Images

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