Weather News

Unrelenting heatwave gripping northern Australia

Ben Domensino, Friday November 8, 2024 - 14:07 AEDT

A severe to extreme heatwave will continue to bake northern Australia this weekend and into next week, with temperatures possibly approaching the high-40s around Wednesday or Thursday.

The upper-level weather pattern over Australia is currently in a zonal state, meaning the upper-level winds are generally flowing in a west-east direction. This zonal flow is allowing a slow-moving upper-level high pressure system to remain centred over Australia, which is causing a very hot air mass to linger across northern parts of the country.

Over the past week, this hot air mass caused temperatures to exceeded 45°C at six separate weather stations in WA, Qld and northwest NSW, getting as high as 45.9°C at Roebourne in WA’s Pilbara region.

Unfortunately, the heat isn’t going anywhere soon and a severe to extreme heatwave – the two highest categories on the Australian heatwave scale – are set to linger in parts of WA, the NT and Qld through this weekend and into next week.

The maps below show the heatwave severity forecasts for the next six days, broken down into two three-day periods.

Image: Heatwave severity forecast for the three days starting on Friday, November 8, 2024.

Image: Heatwave severity forecast for the three days starting on Monday, November 11, 2024.

Some computer models suggest that maximum temperatures in far western Qld could hover around 41 to 44°C during the next seven days. There are also indications that temperatures could once again exceed 45°C in northern WA around Wednesday or Thursday next week.

Image: Forecast maximum temperature on Wednesday, November 13, 2024, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

While northern Australia is usually hot at this time of year, the heatwave currently gripping the region is abnormally hot for November. In the Pilbara, Onslow Airport’s running average maximum temperature for the first week of November was 39.4°C, which is 5°C above the long-term average.

- Weatherzone

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Unrelenting heatwave gripping northern Australia

14:07 AEDT A severe to extreme heatwave will continue to bake northern Australia this weekend and into next week, with temperatures possibly approaching the high-40s around Wednesday or Thursday.