The Bureau of Meteorology says the prolonged heatwave impacting much of Queensland won’t let up until at least Friday.
Meteorologist Grace Legge said the severe to extreme heatwave conditions were due to a static weather pattern, which is allowing hot air to remain throughout the week.
Some areas may see daytime temperatures close to 10 °C above average for this time of year, and it will continue until Friday.
Not much relief is seen overnight either, with some areas of central Queensland only getting down to 30 °C before heating up again during the day.
From Thursday, this heat does move slightly further north—with no cool air coming up behind it until Friday, when a ridge does build in the south and pushes up some cooler air.
This air will continue to push through the State and bring some relief from the heat, though temperatures do remain above average.
To add to the heat, we're also seeing an increase in humidity across the eastern districts, which will exacerbate the already uncomfortable conditions. Sea breezes along the coast will keep the temperatures down, but unfortunately brings up the humidity.
On the Who got the Rain? Facebook Group it is all about the heat this week.
Valerie Cocks reported on Monday that it was 43 degrees south of Duaringa at 4pm while Pete Baruciak posted that it was just over 46 degrees at Mckinlay in North West Queensland at 4pm.
Land of extremes
Meanwhile as parts of western Queensland are expected to hit 45 degree heat during Wednesday afternoon, snowflakes could be falling in Tasmania.
While a stagnant pool of hot air produces severe to extreme heatwave conditions in Queensland this week, a cold front will clip the nation's southeast on Wednesday.
The air behind this front will be cold enough to cause snow above an elevation of about 1300 metres in Tasmania's central highlands on Wednesday.
This week's contrasting weather may seem unusual, although such large fluctuations in temperature across Australia are not uncommon during summer.
The distance from the bottom of Tasmania to the top of Cape York Peninsula in Queensland is roughly 3,700 kilometres.
This distance is about as the same as travelling from Toronto to Costa Rica and if you flew this far over Europe, you could get from Norway to Egypt.
Australia's large size allows it to lie across three of our planet's four main climate zones: the tropics, subtropics and the temperate zone.
So while friends living in Longreach and Liawenee will be regaling about different types of weather on Wednesday, it won't be anything either of their towns have not experienced before.
Additional reporting from Weatherzone
