A severe heatwave straddling the coastal border area of New South Wales and Queensland will continue into Christmas – but stormy weather is forecast for other parts of Australia over the coming days.
Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior meteorologist Angus Hines said the heat has already been affecting towns and cities in the border region, with some locations recording night-time temperatures of 27C.
“We’ll continue to see heatwave conditions in place across north-eastern parts of New South Wales, as well as south-eastern parts of Queensland,” he said.
“So a fairly hot day is forecast for those areas today. Straddling both sides of the state border, temperatures could be around 2C [to] 7C … higher than our typical averages for December.”
It comes after 40C temperatures were recorded in parts of Sydney on Sunday.
“The heatwave was well and truly in place across Sydney yesterday,” Hines said.
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“It’s not cooled right off to a chilly day, but we’ve dropped from those high 30s or even low 40C temperatures to a forecast high today of around 31C in Sydney, and potentially 34C through some of the western suburbs.”
He said the severe fire danger in parts of Queensland had also eased today.
“Even though fires could start and could spread quickly, the wind is perhaps not strong enough to mean that any fires that do begin would really spread incredibly rapidly to get out of control,” he said.
He said there could also be severe thunderstorms over eastern and northern parts of the country from Monday.
“We have a band of thunderstorms which is expected to build and develop through the next few hours [and] which is going to stretch from the New South Wales coast around the Newcastle area … into southern and western Queensland, and then right out to the Northern Territory,” Hines said.
“So [there’s a] broad risk of stormy weather across those areas for today and then into the next few days.”
Wildly different weather is on the way across other parts of Australia for Christmas Day, as a clearer picture emerges for Thursday.
The BoM has tipped Perth, at 41C, and Brisbane, 35C, to swelter through the hottest conditions of Australia’s capital cities.
Farther south, residents in Melbourne and Hobart may have to break out their winter woollies, with forecast tops of 17C and 16C, respectively.
“If Melbourne only reaches 17C, it will be Melbourne’s coldest Christmas Day since 2006,” senior meteorologist Jonathan How said. “Quite the extremes across both ends of the country.”
There is a chance of a shower in Melbourne in the morning, while wet weather is also forecast across western Tasmania.
“We could even see some light snow flurries about the elevated country on Christmas morning,” How said.
Conditions will be “very muggy” in Brisbane and the city could be hit by a shower or thunderstorm in the afternoon.
Storms and rain are forecast from the Sunshine Coast to Cairns, across most of the Northern Territory and over Western Australia’s Kimberley region.
Darwin and Cairns have predicted maximum temperatures in the low 30s, while the mercury is slated to reach the low to mid 40s in parts of WA’s Pilbara.
Milder weather is forecast for Adelaide, with a maximum temperature of 25C expected on Christmas Day and 29C on Boxing Day.
Sydney and Canberra will also be in the sweet spot, with slightly warmer tops in the mid 20s. The huge variance in daily temperatures stems from a high-pressure system hovering over the Great Australian Bight, which is not uncommon for this time of year.
“It just comes down to timing and unfortunately the coolest day of the week coincides with Christmas Day across Victoria and Tasmania,” he said.
– With AAP
