South-east Queenslanders might be cranking up the air-conditioners for one of the hottest February weeks on record, but Mount Isa road worker Christopher Petersen reckons those people are a "pack of sooks".

Mr Petersen, a traffic controller in the state's north-west, said he felt pretty comfortable this week, despite the severe to extreme heatwave.

It hit 42 degrees Celsius in Mount Isa yesterday and is forecast to hit that mark again today.

"It's great here ... I'm not even sweating, I think you're a pack of sooks if you're whinging about 36," Mr Petersen said.

"When it gets hot it's about 48 ... yeah, that's hot.

"We don't take our jumpers off til it's 36."

Meanwhile in Brisbane, first-year university students Rebecca Swift and Rose Robinson found a patch of shade as Brisbane reached an apparent temperature of 37.5C.

Ms Swift said she took refuge in unexpected places to escape the heat.

"I've been just chilling in the libraries between lectures," she said.

Rose Robinson (L) and Rebecca Swift find a cool spot for some ice-cream at the University of Queensland. ( ABC News: Tim Swanston )

"I've been using my aircon a lot and I feel as though my power bill will be going really high and I don't think that I would want to know the price of it right now."

Ms Robinson said she had likewise been taking advantage of the university's cooler zones.

"It's a bit hard going outside but that's okay, you've got to get to classes somehow," she said.

Heatwave breaks records

The Bureau of Meteorology said southern, central and western Queensland remained in the grip of a severe to extreme heatwave.

For two consecutive days this week, the statewide average maximum temperature soared above 40, which is a record for February.

Maximum and minimum temperatures in southern Queensland remained well above the monthly average, while western areas such as Longreach have had consecutive days of around 45C.

Forecaster Harry Clark said there was no cool change in sight.

"This heatwave has been quite notable for its widespread extent and also its duration, so we've seen really warm temperatures across a very large part of Queensland," he said.

"The good news in the south-east is that we will see temperatures start to reduce from Friday onwards and also the humidity will drop as well.

"So we will still be one or two degrees above average, but it will be much more comfortable than it has been over the last few days."