A weeklong heatwave is frying south-eastern Australia to a crisp and our many nervous conversations begin again: how bad will the bushfires be this summer?

On top of the extreme heat, forests in Victoria and NSW are full of highly flammable eucalyptus oil-filled fuel after strong vegetation growth due to several years of good rainfall.

But the fire danger ratings are not rising to extreme levels. How can that be?

Sydney and Melbourne will swelter through the hottest weather in years over the coming week.Credit: Getty Images

Fortuitously, only two of the four horsemen of the bushfire apocalypse – heat and fuel – are up and riding across the landscape this summer.

Without the other two ingredients of catastrophic bushfires – drought and hot winds – we are unlikely to see a repeat of the gigantic fire front that swept through vast swathes of the eastern seaboard in 2019-20.

But while bushfire is an ever-present risk in summer, moisture is saving us from the likelihood of a repeat of Black Summer, and it has........

© The Sydney Morning Herald