This summer across Australia is shaping up as one of high contrasts with heat waves, bursts of cold weather, bush fires, floods, storms and drought becoming commonplace.
Following floods along parts of coastal New South Wales over recent days, a bush fire emergency in south west Western Australia that has destroyed over 120 homes, a tropical cyclone looming near New Caledonia, another weather system is expected to unleash another burst of hot weather over a significant proportion of Australia.
A strong high pressure cell is building in the Tasman Sea and the result is a 4 to 5 day burst of hot weather across much of inland Australia with the only areas to avoid the worst of it are the coastal locations and higher elevated regions.
Some of the heat is even expected to reach into Western Sydney. A cool change is expected to end the heat for Western Sydney late Thursday afternoon.
This is another heatwave and fire fighters would be on alert especially across South Australia and Victoria.
The attached Temperature Forecast from the BSCH for 4 pm is showing the extent of the heat for Monday to Thursday.
Forecast maximum temperatures are being made at selected locations being.
NEW SOUTH WALES
Albury - (Sun 36C), (Mon 39C), (Tue 37C), (Wed 39C).
Cobar - (Sun 40C), (Mon 41C), (Tue 42C), (Wed 43C) and (Thu 38C).
Forbes - (Sun 38C), (Mon 40C), (Tue 40C), (Wed 42C) and (Thu 39C).
Griffith - (Sun 39C), (Mon 42C), (Tue 40C), (Wed 43C) and (Thu 35C).
Hay - (Sun 39C), (Mon 42C), (Tue 40C), (Wed 44C) and (Thu 31C).
Penrith - (Sun 32C), (Mon 37C), (Tue 38C), (Wed 33C) and (Thu 40C).
Wagga - (Sun 37C), (Mon 39C), (Tue 38C), (Wed 40C) and (Thu 35C).
A feature of some inland and or outback areas are the expected 3 to 4 days in a row where 40C maximum temperatures are being forecast.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Adelaide - (Sun 38C), (Mon 34C), (Tue 34C), (Wed 37C).
Renmark - (Sun 40C), (Mon 39C), (Tue 40C), (Wed 41C).
Tarcoola - (Sun 42C), (Mon 41C), (Tue 41C), (Wed 44C).
Woomera - (Sun 41C), (Mon 40C), (Tue 40C), (Wed 43C).
Some very hot weather is expected across inland regions but it appears Adelaide may miss the worst of it.
VICTORIA
Bendigo - (Sun 36C), (Mon 38C), (Tue 35C), (Wed 41C).
Echuca - (Sun 38C), (Mon 40C), (Tue 37C), (Wed 43C).
Mildura - (Sun 40C), (Mon 39C), (Tue 44C), (Wed 27C).
The northern areas of the state will be more affected than the southern areas.
The heatwave has already infiltrated some inland areas with maximum temperatures for Sunday reaching the following:-
Fowlers Gap reaching 39.9C.
Ivanhoe reaching 39.7C.
Mildura reaching 39.2C.
Swan Hill reaching 38.8C.
Walpeup reaching 39.1C.
Wilcania Airport reaching 41.1C.
Woomera Aerodrome reaching 40.5C to 5 pm.
This appears to be the start of a difficult and hot week for much of inland Australia and further bush fire outbreaks cannot be ruled out.
For the past two days heatwave conditions have been prevailing, especially for areas away from the coast. The hottest regions across southern and eastern Australia have been the regions around Broken Hill, Mildura, eastern South Australia and northern Victoria. For the 11/1/2016, some high maximum temperatures recorded includes:-
Ivanhoe 42.6C.
White Cliffs 41.9C.
In White Cliffs a temperature of 30.5C was recorded at 8 am.
Deniliquin 40C.
Yunta (South Australia) 39.5C.
Mildura 39.1C.
For the 12/1/2016, some high temperatures include:-
Port August (South Australia) 43.6C
Ivanhoe 42.9C.
Leigh Creek (South Australia) 42.7C.
Yunta (South Australia) 41.8C.
Mildura 40.5C.
Generally all areas around Broken Hill, Fowlers Gap, Cobar and Wilcania reached 40C or more throughout the day.
The heat is not without its bush fire danger because once again fire fighters are battling another sizeable bush / grass fire south of Wodonga close to where a previous fire burnt 7,700 hectares. The new fire has burnt more than 150 hectares resulting in several alerts being issued. A bush fire fight is currently being undertaken to stop the spread of the fire into outlying areas of southern Wodonga.
During Wednesday, some exceptional hot weather was recorded across inland South East Australia. Additionally, there are now places that have sweltered through three consecutive days where the maximum temperature has reached 40C or more.
The heat is also creating interesting and unusual weather phenomena in which elevated towns such as Orange and Braidwood are significantly hotter than low lying coastal areas. Along the New South Wales coastal strip, sea breezes are certainly impacting on maximum temperatures to such an extent that the following has occurred:-
1 – Moruya at sea level reached 25C but at Braidwood 665 metres above sea level, it reached 36.4C being 11.4C hotter than the coastal location.
2 – It reached 28C at the Mt Ginini weather station at 1,760 metres above sea level while it only reached 23.6C at Ulladulla. The heat and associated hot dry north west winds from the inland has advected deep into the Snowy Mountains and surrounds creating the unusual temperature differences between the coast and high land areas.
Even at Orange at 888 metres above sea level it reached 34C, significantly hotter than many coastal locations.
The heatwave is ending across Victoria as a cool change passes through that state.
At Wodonga where it reached 42.3C, fire fighters have managed to contain a blaze that scorched 190 hectares. At nearby Albury Airport, a weather station has recorded a wind gust of 67 km/h at 4.11 pm and a narrow band of storms have formed further east although they are producing little rainfall.
At Hay, it reached 44.8C and this is the third consecutive day of 40C plus temperatures for that town.
Other maximum temperatures include:-
Deniliquin 45C (Reached at 3.30 pm).
Swan Hill 44.5C.
Griffith 44.4C.
Shepparton 43.4C.
Mildura 43.1C before the cool change passed through.
Melbourne 41.6C.
Such temperatures are not repeated across Western Sydney. In this regard, maximum temperatures have reached into the low to mid 30s in an area spanning from Parramatta to Penrith, Richmond to Camden.