Heatwave and fire warnings as parts of Victoria expected to approach ‘all-time maximum record’ temperatures | Australia weather
Victorians are being warned to brace for a new heatwave that will see temperatures soar to record levels in some parts of the state and put authorities on alert in fire-affected areas.
Parts of South Australia and New South Wales have been told to prepare for hot weather due to what Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Kevin Parkyn described as a “heat dome” causing record-breaking heat moving eastwards in Western Australia.
Saturday will mark the beginning of prolonged temperatures above 40C for at least five days for inland South Australia, Victoria and NSW, according to the bureau.
Adelaide was expected to reach 42C on Saturday, while Port Augusta, 300km north of the city, was expected to reach 46C.
Melbourne was expected to see temperatures reach 40°C, then drop to 25°C on Sunday and 30°C on Monday, rising to 41°C on Tuesday, thanks to a south-westerly wind shift. Temperatures at Ouyen near Mildura are expected to reach 48C, while it will be even hotter in the north of the state.
“A lot of centers will probably be approaching all-time maximum records. Tuesday is a pretty big day,” Parkyn said. he said.
Sign up: AÜ Breaking News email
There could be a cool change in Melbourne on Wednesday, while warm weather was expected to continue in northern Victoria.
“This could be four, five, six, seven days of 40-degree temperatures, especially inland along the Murray,” Parkyn said.
He said there is no meaningful rain forecast for the next two weeks. Extreme fire danger was forecast for the south-west and Wimmera on Saturday.
There were seven large active fires in Victoria that could burn for days or weeks. The fires in Walwa, Wonnangatta Complex (Dargo) and Mallacoota are yet to be brought under control.
Although the Longwood fire in central Victoria is now under control, it has destroyed 320 homes and burned 144,000 hectares since it started on January 9.
Country Fire Authority chief officer Jason Heffernan stressed that even without the strong winds seen two weeks ago, the “sharp temperature and topography of the terrain” meant fires currently burning “could spread quite quickly”, leading to “quite variable fire behaviour”.
Catastrophic fire danger is also predicted for South Australia’s Yorke peninsula; Extreme fire danger was also expected across much of the southern part of the state and the Mount Lofty Ranges.
The extreme fire danger was expected to extend into southern NSW and the ACT on Sunday.
Records were broken in the West
Temperatures had already soared and records were broken in Western Australia’s north-west on Tuesday, with highs of 40 degrees stretching from Kalbarri to Carnarvon.
Popular holiday destination Shark Bay reached 49.2C, a January record for the region, while maximum temperatures at Gascoyne Junction inland reached 48.9C, the second highest January temperature for that station.
With the temperature reaching 47.9 degrees on Tuesday, a new record was broken at Carnarvon Airport, where observations dating back to 1883 were made.
Temperatures were expected to exceed 45C in parts of Western Australia on Thursday, with extreme fire danger stretching from Perth north to the wheat belt to places such as Albany and Esperance.
A tropical cyclone watch has been issued for tropical low 16U located 790km northwest of Broome, which has a high risk of developing into Tropical Cyclone Luana as it approaches the Kimberley coast on Saturday.
Further ahead, peak temperatures on Tuesday could see records shattered in Victoria. Mildura airport was predicted to reach 47°C, which would be a record (the highest temperature in January was 46.9°C).
Australia experienced this Fourth hottest year on record in 2025Average temperatures across the country rose to 1.23C, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The climate crisis has increased the frequency and severity of extreme weather events, including heat waves and wildfires.
Warmer than average days and nights were expected to continue across much of the country into April, according to the latest long-range forecast. Sea surface temperatures will remain above the global average, including around Australia.
