Australia has recorded its hottest ever winter temperature, with Yampi Sound in the Kimberley region of Western Australia reaching 41.6C on Tuesday.
The record, which has been provisionally confirmed by the Bureau of Meteorology, and will be officially confirmed by the organisation on Tuesday, exceeds the old national record of 41.2C which was reached at West Roebuck on 23 August 2020.
The temperature is the new Australia-wide maximum temperature record for any winter month.
Scientists say Australia is on track to record its hottest August on record as global heating shortens winter and brings warmth typical of spring and summer.
Temperature records are being broken across Queensland, Western Australia, Northern Territory and New South Wales as an “unseasonal burst” of sustained hot weather engulfs the country.
Records for winter have been broken in the outback town of Oodnadatta in South Australia which hit 39.4C, in Yulara in the NT which reached 36C and Fitzroy Crossing, Derby and Wyndham, all in WA, which sweltered under 40.6C and 40.7C and 40,6C respectively. Birdsville in Queensland had its hottest August day on record, hitting 38.4C.
Large parts of Queensland and NSW are seeing temperatures many degrees warmer than average for this time of year, while central Australia has sweltered through heat 15C above average, Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist said.
“We’ve seen really warm weather around central and eastern parts of Australia,” Hines said.
“It’s been going on for a number of days, lots of different weather stations … got close to, or in some cases exceeded, record temperatures over the course of the weekend.
“What’s really interesting about this warm stretch of weather, is it is going to last for a long time.”
Brisbane hit 31C on Monday, with the hot weather expected to continue into the weekend, where it could get as warm as 34C, he said.
Sydney reached 24C on Monday and is expected to see the unusually warm weather continue later in the week.
“We’ll see a few days in the low 20s and a few days in the high 20s,” he said. “At the moment, the warmest day of the week is looking like it will be Friday, with a forecast maximum of 29C.
“Now at this time of year, normally in August, the average maximum temperature is about 18C. If we do see 29C, that could be a full 11C above the average for this time of year.”
South Australia, the NT and Western Australia are also sweltering under the heat, with Fitzroy Crossing in the Kimberley recording 40.6C on Monday. It is just the third time WA has recorded a temperature in the 40s during winter since records began.
Hines said in the short term winter was “certainly” over and, while temperatures should not continue to break records after this week, the warm weather will stay.
“We may well still get a couple of little bursts of cool weather over the next month or two, but generally speaking, it is going to start to feel more and more spring-like,” he said.
The BoM has also published a severe weather update, looking at the damaging wind sweeping parts of Victoria and Tasmania.
“This week we’ve got very strong winds across southeastern Australia with damaging wind warnings, or even locally destructive winds for large parts of Victoria, but also covering pretty much the entire state of Tasmania,” he said.
“We’ve got broad warnings in place from the far south of the state right through to the far north. It’s looking to be very, very windy there through the first half of this week.”
