Millions of Queenslanders are set to sweat through the remaining days of winter as a week of “unseasonably warm” temperatures culminates in a scorching Saturday in the southeast.
Brisbane is forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology to record maximum temperatures of 30C and above every day except Tuesday (28C) before an expected top of 34C on Saturday, August 31.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: The heat is rising for the last days of winter.
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Areas west of the city, including Oxley (36C), Ipswich (35C), Beaudesert (35C), Gatton (36C) and Boonah (35C) will also farewell winter on Saturday with summer temperatures, while Caboolture and Chermside north of the city will hit an expected 34C.
“Temperatures around the coast will get up to around 10 degrees above August averages, and inland, about 14 degrees above August averages with many locations likely to see their warmest August days since 2009,” BOM senior forecaster Pieter Claassen said.
“For many locations, those forecast maximum temperatures in the low to mid-30s are more akin to what you’d see in a typical December or January day.
“We’re seeing summertime temperatures toward the end of winter, which is very unusual.”
The cause of the heat is a series of troughs pushing warm air from the northwest in a southeasterly direction, according to Claassen.
“We have had a slow build-up of heat the last few days. Now that heat’s really intensifying over the next few days as a trough comes across from the west,” he said.
“And that’s pushing northwesterly winds across the state.
“As that trough moves away, we see another trough move quickly across Queensland in its wake and potentially a third trough toward the end of next week.
“So these trough systems, they’ll be relatively dry but they will bring that really warm air ahead of them and those northwesterly winds across parts of Queensland over the upcoming week.”
While Queensland’s southern neighbours will generally escape the early onset of summer temperatures, there is no indication of a reprieve for the Sunshine State in the form of a weather system that can push cool winds north.
“If you don’t like the heat, I’ve got some bad news at least for the next week: There’s no end in sight to the current warm spell,” Claassen said.
“No southerly wind is forecast really right across Queensland over the next week. No southerly change is forecast.
He said southeast Queensland could expect “the next few months to have above-average temperatures as well”.