Weather News

Huge pool of interior heat to bake capital cities

Anthony Sharwood, Wednesday January 29, 2025 - 12:02 AEDT

A vast pool of hot air has been sloshing around Australia's interior for a week, and after baking many outback towns with relentless maximums in the mid-40s, it’s now set to impact several southern capitals.

Perth will feel like someone left the oven door open this Wednesday, with a maximum of 41°C predicted. If – as seems likely – the mercury tops 40°C, it’ll be the sixth time that has happened in the WA capital in the 2024/25 summer to date.

No other capital city comes close to that many days of extreme heat this summer. Indeed only Adelaide has officially topped 40°C – and only once.

Adelaide reached 40.1°C on December 5.

Numerous suburbs in the greater Sydney metro region have exceeded 42°C, however the city’s official weather station at Observatory Hill has not reached 40°C.

Melbourne has topped 39°C twice, but just fallen short of the 40-degree mark.

The hottest days in both Brisbane and Canberra so far this summer have fallen just short of 38°C

Darwin's hottest day of the 2024/25 summer to date was an unusually warm 35.9°C on December 4.

Hobart sizzled in all sorts of ways this Monday as the Hobart Hurricanes won their first Big Bash title after the mercury hit a running season high of 35.5°C.

So as you can see, all capitals except Perth have been largely spared from days of extreme heat this summer. But the pattern changes early next week.

Image: In this map produced by the ECMWF model showing expected maximum temperatures for Tuesday, February 4, you can see the vast pool of heat dipping down towards Adelaide.

Early next week, heat will roast the southeast, with Adelaide going for a spell of three days around 40°C from Sunday through to Tuesday.

Melbourne is also in line for a blast of sustained heat with top temps around 38°C or 39°C across those three days.

Image: Even by outback summer standards, it has been hot this week in outback Australia, with temperatures far enough above average to be classified as a heatwave. From Saturday onwards, heatwave conditions spread to the southeast mainland and Tasmania.

As we wrote last week, there have been three main causes for the persistent heatwave affecting such a large part of the country:

The persistent, near-stationary high pressure ridge sitting over the centre of the continent

Cold fronts south of the continent lacking sufficient strength to inject cooler air

Clear skies in the absence of the monsoon

A similar pattern has persisted since we published that story. One slight difference is that by Saturday, a high pressure system centred over the Tasman Sea will begin to direct hot dry northerlies the way of the southeastern capitals.

Image: Synoptic chart for Feb 1, 2025, showing hot air being directed towards southeastern Australia as it circulates around the high centred over the southern Tasman Sea.

We'll keep you posted on the impending heatwave for the southeast in coming days.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2025

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