Australia heatwave sees Victoria, South Australia swelter, NSW expects temperatures to soar

Updated

Brace yourself, Australia: it's like an oven out there for large swathes of the country.

Key points: Much of Victoria to experience mid-40s heat but cool change expected for Melbourne

Adelaide to hit 42C again, Tarcoola in SA to reach 47C

Students in SW Queensland kept indoors, heatwave to intensify in NSW towards weekend

Parts of Australia's south and east have sweltered through 40-degree-plus temperatures today, as severe heatwave conditions continue to develop.

The Bureau of Meteorology says a severe heatwave is moving through the southern parts of South Australia and much of Victoria, while spreading further east into New South Wales' coastal regions and south-west Queensland.

Temperatures were tipped to soar to 44 degrees Celsius in northern Victoria, which is anticipating several days of extreme heat.

Mildura and Swan Hill both reached 44C about lunchtime today, prompting fire bans and heat health warnings for the Mallee and Wimmera regions.

There is also a total fire ban in the Central region and heat warnings for East Gippsland.

It was only slightly cooler in Melbourne's CBD, which reached 35C at 2:00pm this afternoon.

It had been forecast to reach a maximum of 37C, which would have made it the Victorian capital's hottest day of the season so far.

A cool change for Melbourne arrived in the afternoon, but the weather bureau's Dr Chris Godfred said the hot air was expected to hang around the north of the state well into the weekend.

"Albury's expecting a top of 43C Friday and then 40C, 41C along the Murray River during Saturday," he said.

"The air mass is quite humid. It's going to limit the degree of cooling. Conditions as we try to sleep, especially Thursday night, [are] going to be quite stifling."

Firefighters spent the night monitoring hot spots after a grassfire at Diggers Rest, in Melbourne's north west.

While the fire is under control, authorities issued an advice message for residents in Diggers Rest and Calder Park to monitor conditions.

Firefighters also brought a bushfire under control overnight at Amphitheatre, near Lexton, in the state's west.

The heatwave in New South Wales is expected to reach severe and extreme levels towards the weekend.

Parts of SA push towards 50 degrees Celsius

South Australia is enduring a second hot and muggy day, with the temperature in Adelaide reaching 38.9C just after 1:00pm, and Tarcoola in the state's north reaching 46C.

The mercury in Adelaide hit 42.4C yesterday and senior forecaster Tom Boeck said inland areas would remain hot and sticky today.

He said the state would not see much relief from the heat until late on Saturday or early on Sunday.

"Certainly it will be feeling quite humid today with moisture still pushing down from the north," he said.

"Unfortunately the evap aircon like I have won't be working too well today, but hopefully in the overnight period they'll be functioning a bit better with the temperatures coming down a touch."

South Australia's Energy Minister Tom Koutsantonis wants answers from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) over forced power outages last night while the temperature hovered at 40 degrees.

More than 40,000 homes were without power for more than half an hour after SA Power Networks was instructed to begin load shedding because of a lack of available generation.

Mr Koutsantonis said despite the extreme heat that had been forecast days ago, the national operator failed to turn on extra generation at Pelican Point.

"We knew that we were heading into a very, very high-demand evening [with] very, very hot winds and very, very hot conditions," he said.

"We should've had all of our available generation on and operating, and for whatever reason the market operator didn't turn on all that generation and we were left short for 27 minutes, and that's unacceptable."

In a statement, the AEMO said it understood the frustration from South Australian energy consumers.

"It is important to note that AEMO instructed load shedding to ease the pressure on the power system, protecting it from potentially impacting more residents, and for a longer period," it said in a statement.

It has forecast "a tightening supply/demand balance across South Australia and New South Wales over the coming days".

Queensland students kept indoors

Students at a school in south-west Queensland will spend lunchtime indoors if temperatures soar above 40C.

St Patrick's Primary School in St George has implemented a "hot weather policy" where students stay in their air-conditioned classrooms once the temperature hits 42C.

Principal Brendan Redinger said keeping the students cool was crucial to their learning.

"If they're running around, you know, even in the shade, it's hot. So we have to be mindful of these students and help them out with their regulation of temperature," he said.

"So by looking after them and keeping them cool and calm in this situation we're getting the best out of them."

Temperatures in St George are expected to reach 45C over the weekend.

In contrast to the heat, the West Australian town of Karratha recorded its wettest February day on record.

A tropical low which crossed the Pilbara coast at midday on Wednesday dumped more than 208 millimetres of rain on the town.

The low is currently south-west of Karratha and moving parallel to the coast.

The Bureau's Andrew Tucker said the heat in the country's south and east, coupled with monsoons in the west amounted to an unusual set of conditions.

"There is a lot happing around Australia at the moment. A lot of heat, a lot of rain," he said.

"Basically a big monsoon set up causing rain, floods in some parts of the country and most of eastern Australia is dealing with a lot of heat at the moment."

Topics: weather, mildura-3500, melbourne-3000, amphitheatre-3468, vic, st-george-4487, qld, sa, nsw, australia

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