Sydney sweats in ‘Singapore-like’ humidity as monsoon conditions move to Queensland and hot weather hits WA

Swimmers at a Sydney beach. The city is experiencing record humidity amid challenging summer weather across Australia. Photograph: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

Sydney’s oppressive humidity will hang around at the weekend, forecasters say – as elsewhere in the country monsoon conditions move across Queensland, Western Australia suffers a severe heatwave and Melbourne turns cool and cloudy.

“There is a lot going on,” Dean Narramore, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said on Friday.