After a cool start to December, it’ll actually begin to feel like summer from today.
The mercury is set to rise to 33 degrees in Mackay and 35 degrees at Proserpine as heatwave conditions hit large parts of the state.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Peter Markworth says summer has well and truly arrived, with the warm maximum and minimum temperatures expected to stick around until Thursday.
“Some strong northerlies are pushing these warmer temperatures, some temperatures getting as high as the mid-40s, pushing them right down into south east Queensland, it’s affecting a lot of coastal Queensland.”
He says cooler conditions will set in ahead of the weekend though, across the South East and Wide Bay.
“Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; that timeframe some parts just north of Brisbane expecting severe heatwave conditions, and the same goes for parts of the Wide Bay and up into the Central Coast as well,” he says.
“As we go forward however, we can see a lot of that heat is consolidating in the north whereas we are expecting cooler conditions across the south, we get a cool change coming through.”
Mackay is expected to reach 34 degrees on Thursday while Moranbah will get up to 40.