Wednesday, 4 February 2009

MEDIA RELEASE

Heatwave sets records across southeast Australia

The weather pattern which has given rise to the heatwave conditions across southeast Australia is expected to continue through into the weekend according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

While there may be some temporary relief from hot temperatures in southern Victoria, the immediate prospect is for high temperatures across most of South Australia, northern Victoria, southern New South Wales and the ACT.

“We expect very hot temperatures to extend right across the southeast later in the week and into the weekend,” said Mr Chris Ryan, Head of the Bureau’s National Meteorological and Oceanographic Centre.

“It is expected that by the end of this event there will be many new location records for consecutive days over 40 degrees.”

In the past week a number of climate records have been set across Australia including:

• Tasmania’s highest temperature on record – with site records broken by large margins in northern and eastern parts of the island.
• Highest temperatures recorded in much of Victoria and southern South Australia since 1939 with Melbourne and Adelaide only missing recording their highest maximum temperature by a small margin.
• Adelaide experienced the highest minimum temperature on record at 33.9 degrees on January 29.
• The long duration of the event – with records reached for consecutive days over 43 at Adelaide (4) and Melbourne (3).

“The south east of Australia continues to see unprecedented heat at a time where conditions are also historically dry,” said Dr David Jones, Head of Climate Analysis at the Bureau’s National Climate Centre.

A special climate statement dealing with the heatwave is also available.

Ends