Heatwave "Most Significant Ever" For SE Australia - For 8th Time Ever, Daily High Temp Of 50C Confirmed
Heatwaves and hot days during an Australian summer may seem unremarkable. Days spent at the beach, sunburn and mosquitoes are part of the national psyche, along with outback pubs serving crisp lager as relief from searing afternoon heat. But when the opal mining town of Andamooka (population 262) in the far north of South Australia reached 50 degrees on Thursday, it was only the eighth time in recorded history anywhere in Australia.
It was also the highest temperature recorded so far in what meteorologists have dubbed a “dome of heat” that began with exceptional temperatures in the west and moved into south-eastern Australia, where it still lingers. With no cold front to clear it out, the heat had “nowhere to go” – trapped by a blocking high in the Tasman and remnants of ex-tropical cyclone Luana in Western Australia.
But Bureau of Meteorology senior climatologist Dr Simon Grainger says the latest heatwave is worse. For south-east Australia, it is among “the most significant we’ve ever seen”, he says, for its intensity, duration, temperatures and for the length of time the heat has remained above certain thresholds – comparable to January 2009 and January 1939.
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About 50 weather stations – mostly scattered across western New South Wales, western Victoria and eastern South Australia – have recorded their highest temperatures, Grainger says. Victoria set a state all-time record of 48.9C on Tuesday in the Mallee towns of Hopetoun and Walpeup. On the same day, just over the border, the village of Pooncarie hit 49.7C, equalling the second highest temperature recorded in NSW.
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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/jan/31/day-and-night-theres-no-relief-five-ways-this-heatwave-is-one-of-australias-worst-on-record
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