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Rare winter 40C ends historic weekend of heat in Australia

Ben Domensino, Sunday August 25, 2024 - 19:33 AEST

Exceptionally warm August temperatures have pulverised winter heat records in parts of Australia this weekend, with a rare winter 40°C observed in WA on Sunday afternoon.

A large pool of abnormally hot air for late winter has been sitting over northern and central Australia during the last few days. While this heat originated over northern Australia, it was dragged across the interior in the last few days by a brisk stream of northwesterly winds, which developed between a high pressure system centred above Qld and a low pressure system centred near the Great Australian Bight.

This weather pattern was ideal for abnormally high late-winter temperatures in the Australian interior.

Image: Modelled maximum temperature on Sunday, August 25, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

On Saturday, Oodnadatta registered a maximum temperature of 39.4°C. This was 17°C above average for this time of year and the highest temperature ever observed in SA during winter.

Prior to this week, SA’s winter heat record was 36.5°C from August 12, 1946. Remarkably, this record was eclipsed four times this week, at Moomba (36.9°C) and Marree (37.3°C) on Saturday and at Oodnadatta on Friday (38.5°C) and Saturday (39.4°C). The final highest reading at Oodnadatta was almost 3°C above the old record, which is a rare margin for a new state maximum temperature record.

Another rare temperature seen in Australia this weekend was 40.6°C at Fitzroy Crossing in WA on Sunday afternoon. This was the 3rd highest temperature ever observed in Australia during winter, and only the 5th time an Australian location has exceeded 40°C in winter.

In Qld, temperatures rose as high as 38.4°C at Birdsville on Sunday afternoon, which was the second highest winter temperature on record for the state.

Minimum temperatures also broke records this weekend. Moomba’s 23.8°C and Oodnadatta’s 23.4°C on Sunday morning both beat the previous SA minimum temperature record of 22.3°C from Oodnadatta on August 23, 1995.

Abnormally hot air will linger over northwestern Australia into the start of next week, with potential for more days over 40°C between Monday and Thursday. This hot air will also return to central Australia around Thursday and Friday next week, with temperatures possibly returning to the high-30s once again before winter’s end.

Image: Forecast temperature and wind at 4pm AEST on Friday, August 30.

- Weatherzone

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