Queensland is in for more hot days and warm nights, with weather officials warning cooler temperatures won’t arrive until early next week.
The Bureau of Meteorology said on Thursday morning that parts of the state and northern New South Wales were expected to see temperatures two to eight degrees above the November average, continuing “multiple days in a row where we’ve seen such warm conditions”.
“It is going to be difficult to manage the heat and manage the heat stress on your body. So it’s just a reminder to stay cool, stay indoors and stay hydrated as much as possible,” BoM senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said in a briefing.
“Unfortunately, this heat is going to linger until Friday and even into the early part of the weekend. We’re not expecting a true cooling in conditions in New South Wales and Queensland until early next week.”
Meanwhile, Sydney was still recovering after a series of severe storms hammered NSW on Wednesday. The NSW State Emergency Service responded to nearly 2,300 calls in the 24-hour period to 5am this morning.
The busiest area was the Sydney suburb of Blacktown, with more than 350 storm-related jobs. In Orange, officials responded to about 170 incidents, and in the town of Nevertire, west of Dubbo, the SES said “entire roofs were blown off properties, including private homes and sheds”.
A large number of trees were brought down across Sydney, western NSW and the Central Coast.
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The BoM said there were significant winds across NSW yesterday, including gusts up to 119km/h at Nobbys Head and 109km/h in Orange and Dubbo. In Queensland, gusts in Dalby topped 109km/h and reached 107km/h in Goondiwindi.
There remains a risk of severe storms in parts of north-eastern NSW and much of the eastern districts of Queensland today. Bradbury said other parts of NSW would see a “very slight reprieve” in fire conditions on Thursday, but warned it remained hot, dry and dangerous.
Ausgrid said its crews were working to restore power to many homes in NSW affected by the high winds and heavy rain yesterday, which also brought down power lines and damaged infrastructure across its network. About 15,000 customers were without power on Thursday morning across Sydney, Newcastle, the Central Coast and Singleton – 25,000 others had power restored.
“Crews worked through the night to respond to over 900 electrical hazards reported by emergency services and customers, including fallen poles, powerlines, trees and branches on wires,” Ausgrid said in a statement on Thursday. “The majority of customers are expected to be back on by today, but depending on the extent of damage and access some outages may extend into tomorrow.”
Endeavour Energy, which supplies power to parts of western Sydney, including Blacktown, had 322 active outages affecting more than 28,000 customers this morning. The company was cancelling all planned maintenance to redeploy crews from the South Coast to help with all major repair efforts.
“At the height of the short, intense storm, more than 61,000 customers were without power after 100km/h winds battered the area,” the company said. “We have opened storm centres to coordinate crews across the area and to tackle more than 750 reported electrical hazards, the highest number reported in the last decade.”
