Severe Heatwave Sweeps Through Regions This Week

The first thing I wanted to show you was yesterday's top temperatures, Monday's high temperatures. And we're actually going to zoom into Western Australia. It was very hot over Western Australia yesterday, 45 to 46°C in a few areas. And the key thing to note is the heat, which has been building over the inland west over the last several days, is going to spread to other areas through the course of this week.

So let's see how those temperatures evolve across the country. Starting off with today, Tuesday's maximum temperatures. Still very hot in the west, but we can see some of that heat shown by the purple on this map getting dragged into central Australia. So 42 to 44°C temperatures through northern parts of South Australia and inland parts of Queensland and New South Wales. Across the south-east of the country, while it's fairly warm, these temperatures are all pretty typical for this time of year, but can't necessarily say the same thing tomorrow.

It will be an absolute scorcher on Wednesday, with Victoria and South Australia copping the brunt of the heat. Melbourne and Adelaide both forecast to reach 41°C on Wednesday. The capital cities may see some cooler weather kick in some stage in the afternoon as sea breezes develop near the coastline, but inland parts of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia will stay extremely hot all through the day. A few areas, in particular northern parts of South Australia, likely to be around 45°C. It will be very hot along the Murray River as well. That's northern Victoria, southern New South Wales and eastern South Australia, 43 to 44°C. Warm across Tasmania, but not as hot as the mainland.

Let's keep looking further into the week. Thursday will be another very hot day for many of the same areas. A little bit cooler for Melbourne, dropping to 30°C, but Adelaide stays very, very hot at 39°C. Canberra starting to climb, 37°C there. But again it's these inland parts through this stretch of the country here, where 44 to 46°C temperatures are expected.

Continuing to move forward now into Friday's temperatures. Another hot one in Melbourne. Temperatures spike back up there. Canberra continues to climb, headed for 39°C. Slightly cooler in Adelaide as the wind will change down there, bringing some cooler temperatures onshore. Very hot through the centre of the country, down into northern parts of Victoria and getting quite hot around Sydney. Now it says 33°C here, that's likely to be in the CBD and the ocean-side suburbs, western parts of Sydney more likely 39 or 40°C on Friday.

And we're going to go one further as well into Saturday's temperatures. Saturday will be the warmest day of the week in Sydney, 39°C this time in the city. And again, those western suburbs looking warmer, potentially 43 or 44°C around the likes of Penrith and Parramatta. Canberra, another hot day, but there will be changes by the time the weekend arrives across the south coast, with much cooler weather for both Melbourne, Adelaide as well as Tasmania. So that will be the end of the heatwave down here.

Speaking of heatwave, a heatwave warning is issued when three or more days in a row of very hot weather are forecast to occur, and for the three-day period from Wednesday through to Friday this week, our heatwave warnings are extensive. Due to that hot weather, orange shows the severe heatwave all the way from northern South Australia down to the south-east. The red shows the extreme heatwave through the ACT, southern New South Wales and eastern parts of Victoria, so it's a prolonged run of very hot days, as well as hot nights across this entire area through the second half of this week.

We'll go one extra day now out to Saturday. The heatwave moves up into New South Wales, including Sydney, although we expect those heatwave warnings to end for Melbourne and Adelaide by Saturday as the cooler temperatures will move into those areas.

Heat is just one ingredient that leads to elevated and dangerous fire danger, and we do expect to see some pretty significant fire weather during the course of this heatwave. It is also going to be very dry across the country. It's fairly windy. We don't have howling winds every day, but fairly breezy enough to really whip up any fires which do happen to start. And there is the potential for some lightning strikes as well, which gives us some ignition sites across south-eastern Australia.

So high to extreme fire danger on Wednesday across southern areas, particularly through South Australia. Thursday will be fairly similar, high to extreme fire danger across the south and south-east, some areas of extreme through South Australia and Victoria, and then Friday again looking fairly similar, high to extreme fire danger across much of the south-east.

So just want to reiterate a couple of the key impacts which come with those very, very hot conditions which we're anticipating this week. First and foremost is that increased risk of bushfire. If any bushfires do get going under these conditions, they can spread extremely quickly and be very difficult or impossible to control and contain. It can be very hard to stay cool and get a good night's sleep under hot weather, particularly with those hot nighttime temperatures, and we can see stress on the power and infrastructure networks, as we do have a lot of heat across the country, and everyone turns on the AC at the same time.

Do stay up to date this week with your severe heatwave warnings, as well as just your forecast temperatures all across the country with all that heat bouncing around Australia. You can find your latest forecast on the Bureau's website or the BOM Weather app. Thanks for watching and stay safe.