After being forced to ‘hole up’ in their vans during recent heavy rains, some grey nomads have been sweating their way through some seriously hot temperatures in recent days.
In several towns across the Queensland’s north-west the mercury topped 40 degrees.
The ABC reports that Julia Creek recorded its hottest October day on Sunday when the mercury reached 43.9C, eclipsing the previous heat record at 43.8C set in 2018.
Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist, Livio Regano, said there was a ‘vigorous’ trough system on the eastern side of Australia.
“We’ve got the hottest wind you can, get which is the north-westerly,” Mr Regano told the ABC. “On the western side we’ve got a cooler wind, which comes from the south west.”
Heat records are being broken in regional Queensland. PIC: Pexels
Residents in the neighbouring town of Cloncurry also battled 43C heat while the mercury in Mount Isa and Camooweal reached 41C and Richmond experienced a top of 42C.
However, temperatures across north-west Queensland are set to drop by 10C today as a cool change makes its way through the region.
“Two different types of air that don’t mix together, the cold air’s very heavy and the warm air tends to be quite light,” Mr Regano told the ABC. “That’s why we get fronts, when they come together, they just slide around each other”
Mr Regano said when these fronts advance, they get displaced by the others so the 40-something degree air suddenly subsides and you get the 30-odd degree air coming to take its place.
“Melbourne’s famous for these changes,” he said.
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