Australia's Heatwave

A SLOW moving mass of hot air coupled with a once-a-year celestial event is bringing scorching heat across much of the country with temperatures in Melbourne and Sydney as much as 14 degrees above the seasonal average, forecasters have said.

A rolling wave of heat is lumbering its way across Australia with highs in Sydney’s west of 39C today and 41C on Thursday with Melbourne hitting the low 40s tomorrow. Perth will be above 35C for much of the week reaching a possible 41C on Friday with Adelaide also sweltering under sticky conditions hovering around 40C tomorrow.

West of the Great Dividing Range it’s even more punishing with highs of 44C in Wilcannia and 46C in Bourke.

While blessed relief is on its way, with a cold front coming in from the Southern Ocean, ironically it’s this system which is causing temperatures to rise ahead of its grand entrance.

“At the moment we have a light pressure gradient over a lot of the interior of Australia which means very light winds so the air has had a chance to heat up over several days,” Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) senior meteorologist Andrew Haigh told news.com.au.

“That hot air is making its way out over NSW and other areas ahead of the cold front.”

14 DEGREES ABOVE AVERAGE

The cooler conditions will hit south western WA tomorrow before reaching South Australia, Victoria and NSW. But before it arrives, the new front will whip up north westerly winds sucking the heat from the centre of the continent to the eastern states bringing sweltering, uncomfortable conditions.

The orbit of the Earth is not circular around the sun but elliptical and, usually in early January, the planet is some five million kilometres nearer to the centre of the solar system than it is in early July when it is at its greatest distance. As the perihelion falls in the southern summer any particularly warm spells are compounded, bringing with them extra dangers.

“The heat ahead of this cold front will bring severe to even extreme fire risks to the south west of WA, southern and eastern parts of SA and in central and western Victoria,” he said.

The NSW Government has activated its heatwave disaster plan advising people to look for shade, avoid working outside and provide water for livestock.

We've had warm, sunny weather for weeks now. Temps usually 26C - 28C. Rained heavily last night which was nice but back to cloudless sky again today.