Very hot long weekend for south-east Australia, with extreme fire dangers for many

Australian Community Media

South-east Australia faces a very hot long week, with increased fire danger for many. Footage: Bureau of Meteorology

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00:00 High temperatures and fire dangers are on the way for southeast Australia over

00:04 the coming days, particularly impacting Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia,

00:08 which are all in for a public holiday long weekend. Let's set the scene by

00:13 jumping straight into our latest heatwave maps. Now for the Thursday to

00:18 Saturday period we can already see wide areas of low-intensity heatwave. As we go

00:23 through the Friday to Sunday period we start to see the severe intensity

00:27 heatwave developing through southern parts of the mainland, really peaking

00:32 through the Saturday to Monday period. It's at that time that we're seeing the

00:36 greatest area covered by the severe heatwave conditions, not just southern

00:41 South Australia and Victoria but parts of northern Tasmania as well, and that

00:45 hits many of our major town centres including Adelaide and Melbourne. Now

00:49 just as a reminder for everyone, a severe heatwave or any heatwave is not just

00:54 one hot day and night, it's a three-day period of unusually warm daytime and

00:59 nighttime conditions that is really hard for the body to recover from. It's a sign

01:03 to us that we need to stay cool, stay hydrated and if you or someone you know

01:08 is particularly sensitive to heat, check in with your local health services to

01:12 see what extra precautions you can take across this weekend. So what temperatures

01:18 do these severe heatwaves equate to? Well looking at Friday's maximum

01:22 temperatures we can see warm to hot conditions have already developed across

01:26 much of the southeast, but the temperatures will really peak on

01:30 Saturday. We've got widespread temperatures in the mid to high 30s

01:34 pushing into the low 40s inland, Adelaide getting up to 40 degrees, Melbourne 39

01:38 and Hobart 33. Coinciding with those highest temperatures we're also seeing a

01:44 peak in the fire danger ratings. For tomorrow it's all moderates to high but

01:49 going into Saturday we're seeing some extremes starting to come through for

01:53 some districts of southeast South Australia and it is possible over the

01:57 next 24 to 48 hours that we'll see further fire weather districts upgraded

02:01 to extreme fire dangers as our assessment of the situation continues.

02:05 Now usually with a day of peak heating and peak fire dangers we have that

02:10 followed by a cold front moving through and easing conditions, but unfortunately

02:14 that's not quite the case with this long weekend. If we look at Sunday's fire

02:19 danger ratings we can see that elevated fire dangers, high fire dangers persist

02:23 through Sunday through that later part of the weekend and our temperatures

02:27 remain high as well. Sunday's maximum temperatures are still in the mid to

02:31 high 30s if not low 40s for much of the southeast with very little change

02:36 following through on the Monday as well. In fact it's not until the Tuesday that

02:40 we start to see some milder air extending through Tasmania and southern

02:44 Victoria bringing relief to some people at last. Now the reason for this is that

02:49 we do have a cold front moving through but it's fairly weak. We can see it

02:53 moving across the Bight on Saturday towards Tasmania slipping quickly to the

02:57 south. Now it will increase the winds a little bit through Tasmania and parts of

03:01 Victoria on Saturday but because it's moving so quickly and moving to the

03:05 south it will have a weaker impact across those land areas. This trough

03:11 flying back across the mainland is going to bring some wind change to some parts

03:15 of southern Victoria and South Australia but it's not a decisive cold front with

03:20 a significant temperature drop. That won't come along until later next week.

03:25 So with a very hot long weekend on the way it is essential to keep up to date

03:30 with all of the latest forecasts and warnings via the Bureau's website and

03:34 the BOM social media. Have a good weekend and we'll see you next time.

03:39 you

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