Extreme heat forecast for South Australia, Victoria and parts of Tasmania, prompting fire danger warnings

Last modified on Tue 28 Dec 2021 17.20 EST

Most of Australia will swelter through New Year’s Eve as the heatwave hitting Western Australia moves across to the south-east of the country.

And elevated fire danger levels across parts of south-eastern Australia could affect New Year’s Eve celebrations.

While the heatwave in WA was expected to ease on Thursday, bringing much-needed relief to the state, other parts of the country would begin to feel its effects.

Sarah Scully, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said the conditions “are expected to gradually ease over the next couple of days with the focus of the extreme heat shifting across to south-eastern Australia”.

“We’re forecasting severe heatwave conditions for South Australia through Victoria and also for parts of Tasmania leading into the weekend.”

Heatwave conditions ease for much of WA later this week, while Severe Heatwave conditions build across southeast Australia. A heatwave occurs when max and min temps are unusually hot over a 3 day period and can have serious health impacts. Learn more at: https://t.co/uvLyWC8AhE pic.twitter.com/izFkZlgCWt

The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting Melbourne’s maximum will reach 38C on NYE, a result that would make it the city’s second-hottest day in 2021 if reached. Only 25 January’s 39.2-degree reading has been hotter.

Felix Levesque, a meteorologist at Weatherzone, said: “We should see temperatures drop away from the high 30s and 40s on Thursday, and then that heat will then filter into South Australia and Victoria.”

Much of the eastern seaboard could expect to see temperatures around the 30C mark.

In Queensland and the Northern Territory, some rain was expected.

In Sydney a high of 29C was forecast.

With temperatures in Adelaide expected to reach up to 36C, the country fire service assistant chief officer, Brett Loughlin, said the CFS was preparing for extreme heat and dry conditions across the state.

Loughlin said fire services would be working closely with planned events on New Year’s Eve, but could not rule out the possibility that celebrations would be cancelled or modified.

“It could very well be that if conditions aren’t conducive to allowing safe use of fireworks then we might see those events … cancelled or conducted differently.

“Exceptions can be made where there are suitable precautions put in place,” said Loughlin. But he added it was “too early to give people that sort of hope that things can safely go ahead.”

Loughlin encouraged residents of south-eastern SA to take measures to prepare themselves, including creating a bushfire action plan and staying informed.

“Have the radio, have social media, … our website, the ABC, a broad range of information sources.”

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He also urged people to work cooperatively with the CFS and observe the bans in place.

“We don’t want our brave volunteers to be seeing in the new year risking their lives somewhere just so someone could have their 30 seconds of whiz-bang.”

Highs of more than 40C were forecast for inland south-eastern Australia. “[It] is hot, but it’s not record-breaking territory,” Scully said.

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Fire danger levels for Victoria’s north and west were forecast to be very high to severe over New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. Wimmera was expected to receive a severe fire danger rating, while all regions except the north-east and Gippsland would receive a very high fire danger rating.

“There might be a risk for that to increase, maybe not on Friday, but on Saturday into Sunday with those temperatures peaking,” Levesque said.

24 new temperature #records broken in the last 24 hours 😲 a mix of hottest day, hottest #December day and hottest #Christmas day. There may be more to come with another warm night forecast tonight. A (welcome!) cool change arriving from Wednesday.https://t.co/TXxwMWyhZI pic.twitter.com/WYz6ygm6Se

WA’s severe heatwave conditions, described as “historic” by Jackson Browne, a senior meteorologist at the BoM, had brought temperatures of over 40C and caused bushfire emergency warnings to be issued for parts of the state’s south-west.

In Perth, thousands of homes were left without power as temperature records for Christmas and Boxing Day fell.