Northern Australia becoming one of the hottest places in the world

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Temperatures are soaring in parts of Australia this week. Heatwave warnings are in place for large parts of Queensland and the northern territory -- with the northern half of the country tipped to be one of the hottest places in the world.

Transcript

00:00We are certainly seeing those heatwave conditions across the northern parts of Australia, so

00:06low to severe intensity heatwaves through inland and western Queensland, the Northern

00:11Territory and northern parts of Western Australia.

00:14But today we're also seeing that heat spilling down into South Australia ahead of a gusty

00:18change that's due to move through later.

00:21Now that means we're going to see temperatures such as 43 degrees at Oodnadatta today, 41

00:26degrees at Coober Pedy and Roxby Downs, up to 30 degrees in Adelaide itself, as that

00:31heat really intensifies ahead of this system.

00:33Those temperatures are anywhere between 8 and 14 degrees above the October average,

00:39depending on where you are.

00:40Across northern parts of Australia, those temperatures are more like 2 to 8 degrees

00:45above average.

00:46The heatwave warnings are really triggered by the persistent heat in the north.

00:50So as the week goes on, we're going to see that gusty change that I mentioned pushing

00:54through South Australia and then across Tasmania and Victoria tomorrow.

00:58It'll gradually move through New South Wales on Thursday and southern Queensland later

01:02in the week.

01:03That means we're going to see that peak of temperatures moving eastwards over the next

01:06few days.

01:07For tomorrow, it'll shift from South Australia down to Victoria and inland New South Wales

01:12with temperatures pushing up into the high 30s or low 40s.

01:16Melbourne is heading for a top of 33 degrees tomorrow.

01:19And as we go into Thursday and Friday, that heat will push up the east coast, impacting

01:23Sydney, the northern parts of the New South Wales coast, and of course, southeast Queensland.

01:27We've got a lot of heat sitting over the Australian continent at the moment.

01:31It's been lingering and stagnating for a number of weeks already.

01:35That's why we've already seen these heatwave conditions across the north for quite some

01:38time.

01:39At the moment, though, we're seeing this frontal system, this change moving across the south,

01:44and it is dragging down some of that heat from the north and sort of directing it across

01:50South Australia and the southeast over the next two days.

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