SA, Victoria sweat through heatwave peak

Luke Costin and Duncan Murray | December 27, 2022

Adelaide has sweated through 40C temperatures as millions of people in the country’s south endured the peak of a summer heatwave.

Heatwave warnings were issued for South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and isolated parts of Western Australia with temperatures 6C to 16C above average. 

The conditions were tipped to continue overnight before easing from Wednesday morning as a cool changes arrives from the north.

Western and central South Australia will be the first to feel relief from Tuesday afternoon, followed by Adelaide and south-eastern districts from the early hours of Wednesday morning as the change sweeps east.

Adelaide notched 38C before 11am on its way to a maximum of 40C at around 3pm on Tuesday. The city sweltered through a night where the mercury sank only as far as 27.4C.

That kind of night is on the cards for Victorians, with the temperature not expected to fall lower than about 26 degrees, the state’s hottest night in four years.

Meanwhile, most of Tasmania, including Hobart, joined Flinders Island in reaching close to 30C on Tuesday.

Much of inland NSW saw maximums between 35C and 40C but coastal breezes stopped Sydney’s CBD from recording its first 30C day since February 21.

While some welcome the conditions, severe heatwaves can be dangerous, particularly for older people, babies, children and pregnant and breastfeeding women.

In Victoria, extreme heat kills more than any other natural disaster.

Children’s body temperatures can rise four or five times faster than adults and should never be left in parked cars, Victoria’s ambulance services minister said.

“It’s simple: never leave your kids alone in a car – the consequences can be deadly,” Gabrielle Williams said on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, RSPCA South Australia reminded pet owners to remember their pawed mates and consider bringing them into air-conditioned spaces.

Dogs shouldn’t be walked during the hottest parts of the day or left to trod on any hot surface, it said.

“If you cannot hold the back of your hand on the surface for five seconds, then it’s too hot for your dog’s paws,” RSPCA SA said in a statement.

While Melbourne and Victoria’s north and west were expecting tops between 37C and 41C on Tuesday, the cool change forecast to sweep through the state on Wednesday will bring rain and wind gusts of up to 90km/h across elevated areas.

Damaging winds and severe thunderstorms could pose a risk, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

“We do have high fire danger ratings in the Mallee, Wimmera and northern country fire districts today and tomorrow with those hot temperatures and those increasing winds,” the bureau’s Christie Johnson told reporters on Tuesday.

“So that’s something we would want people to be really careful about.”