Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology

 
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SEVERE WEATHER UPDATE: Hot weather and fire danger in SA and southeastern States

17/01/2018

METEOROLOGIST MICK LOGAN: Hello from the Bureau of Meteorology. Hot weather is on the way for South Australia and the southeastern states for the rest of the week, continuing in New South Wales over the weekend. Most places will experience at least two days of high temperatures, with parts of New South Wales set for a longer run of heat.

The hot days, accompanied by warm nights, contribute to heatwave conditions; and we can see that the bulk of the build-up of the heat across northern Victoria extending into New South Wales will mean that we'll see widespread 'Severe' heatwave conditions through these areas.

As usual, the hot conditions are being driven by the hot air that's normally over the central parts of Australia starting to be drawn down over the southeastern States, initially on Thursday and Friday.

The widespread temperatures across South Australia and Victoria will get up into the low 40s for Thursday and Friday, with some inland locations reaching the mid-40s. Parts of eastern Tasmania will peak in the mid-30s.

During Friday, a weak front will start to move through and that will bring some relief for Tasmania and southern parts of Victoria and South Australia, but unfortunately that front is not strong enough to bring any relief further north into New South Wales.

So while the front on Friday is only going to be quite weak, that does mean that it's not going to be too windy with that system. However, the intense heat will still lead to Fire Weather Warnings for parts of South Australia, Tasmania and northwestern Victoria on Thursday.

Across the weekend and into next week, very hot conditions are expected across New South Wales, with only coastal parts receiving any relief due to localised sea breezes in the area.

Sydney is a really good example of that, where the city itself expected to reach temperatures in the low 30s across the weekend, but the western suburbs like Penrith and Richmond will swelter up into the low 40s.

So as summer continues to sizzle, please follow advice from the emergency services and State health departments. Stay up-to-date with the latest forecasts and warnings on the Bureau's website and the BOM Weather app. And you can also get updates direct from the Bureau forecasters via Twitter.