North Queenslanders are no strangers to hot summers, but even the most seasoned are feeling the heat, with record minimum temperatures pushing up the mercury - with little reprieve in sight.
"It won't be a fun weekend," Bureau of Meteorology's Daniel Hayes said.
As mass flooding surges across the north west in the wake of ex-Tropical Cyclone Kirrily, many Townsville residents are also feeling the after-effects of the tropical low - with power outages still current across the city.
Terrible timing for what weather experts have dubbed a "severe heatwave" down the state.
"The heatwaves has been driven by the very warm minimum temperatures, and in part at least they have been staying very warm during the night because of those very high dew points," Mr Hayes said.
"The higher the moisture in the air, the harder it is to cool, and it's just not cooling down. There is so much moisture in the air, similar to when you have clouds sitting over the top of you.
"Because water is more dense than the air on its own, it locks in that heat.
"We're not getting particularly hot, drying days, they're sitting at around 33-35 degrees right along the tropical coast (a few degrees above the average), but the fact we're seeing those minimum temperatures sitting around 25-29 degrees overnight is what's keeping heatwave conditions."
A number of minimum records have been broken across the state, including the highest daily minimum at St Lawrence on January 30.
The town recorded 28.6 degrees - just 1.1 degrees higher than the previous record which was broken on January 29.
In Mackay, the enduring nocturnal heatwave has kept Sugar City residents warm under the covers - with an all-time record of 28.5 degrees on January 24.
The previous minimum record was 28.2 degrees on March 7 2022.
"It got down to 27.9 degrees at 5.30am (on January 30)...then it started going up again," Mr Hayes said.
"It was 29 degrees at midnight."
Hamilton Island also made the record books for its highest January minimum on January 29 - with 28.3 degrees.
The previous record was 28.2 degrees on January 5 2022.
In Mareeba, a January and annual record was broken on January 30 with 25.2 degrees - just 0.1 degrees higher than the previous January record broken on January 5 2014, and the previous annual record of 25.2 on February 8 2016.
"We are looking at gradually easing conditions, but nothing significant is going to come through and flush out the moisture," Mr Hayes said.
"Throughout the course of the day, it's relatively cool in the morning but it warms up in the afternoon and the relative humidity drops, but the dew point will be very constant through that period.
"The dew point is a more absolute measure...it doesn't change significantly unless there is a major change in the atmosphere.
"The same amount of moisture is there, so when things cool off overnight, the moisture is still there, keeping those temperatures high."
Mr Hayes said southern parts of the state will see the minimum temperatures "gradually start to ease", with a stronger ridge pushing in and bringing drier air.
"We'll start to see those dew points ease...with the minimum dropping two to three degrees at most," he said.
"The maximum temperatures might ease a couple degrees as well, and we'll probably see more showers and possible storm activity work its way along the coast...in the coming days...which will take the edge off and we'll start to see heatwave conditions retract from the Capricornia area and further north.
"We'll see areas come out of the heatwave and retract to the Herbert, Lower Burdekin, and north coast...in the latter part of the week."
