Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior meteorologist, Dean Narramore, says that we can expect severe weather conditions over the next few days as a significant heat wave is likely to impact much of southern and south eastern Australia.
Mr Narramore says that temperatures will climb into the mid 40s in parts of the country, the heat is already building across much of Western Australia.
Moving through today, tomorrow and Thursday, there are likely to be severe heat wave conditions through much of South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria, with extreme heat wave conditions starting to build across parts of Victoria and New South Wales.
‘Our most concern is the three day period running Wednesday through Friday,’ says Mr Narramore. ‘We’re likely to see extreme heat wave conditions over a huge part of New South Wales and Northern Victoria, practically everywhere between Melbourne and Sydney and extending well inland.’
Mr Narramore says that a heat wave is defined as three consecutive days where both the maximum and minimum temperature is well above average for the time of year. ‘That’s exactly what we’re seeing across much of southern and south eastern Australia this week.’
Fire danger
Mr Narramore says we can be thankful there’s not too much wind. ‘We’ve got some gusty southerly winds today though, through the north country of Victoria. So that’s driving extreme fire dangers there, but generally we’re looking at high fire dangers for much of South Australia, Victoria and inland New South Wales.
‘Then as we move into Tuesday, we’re not going to see any major fire conditions, and the heat really starts to build through parts of South Australia.
‘On Wednesday, it’s a high fire danger for all of Victoria, much of New South Wales, with extreme fire dangers likely for many parts of southern South Australia. On Thursday, we’ll see the focus of those extreme fire dangers moving to northern Victoria and on Friday, we’re likely to see extreme fire dangers for much of South Australia and Victoria ahead of that strong, gusty change Friday night into Saturday.
‘With all these hot temperatures and gusty winds later this week, it’s important you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings via our website and app.
‘If and when fires do get going later this week, listen to all advice from emergency services, and we’ll continue to keep you updated here at the Bureau.’
For the latest forecasts and warnings go to our website www.bom.gov.au or the BOM Weather app.
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