Australian weather forecast: country to swelter in heatwave with temperatures above 40C next week

Swathes of Western Australia are baking in over 40C temperatures, and the severe heatwave is set to spread east over the rest of the country next week.

Perth will swelter through three days of above 40C temperatures, starting on Friday and continuing until Sunday. On Friday, the state capital was forecast to hit 41C, and is set for 41C on Saturday and 40C on Sunday.

And next week, Canberra is set to hit 33C on Monday, 35C on Tuesday, 38C on Wednesday and 40C on Thursday. That 40C temperature would set a December record for the capital, beating the previous high of 39.2C, from December 1994.

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Overnight in Perth, it was as warm as 27.4C at 1.30 in the morning, and already above 30C by 9am.

That was much the same for the rest of the state. Fremantle was forecast for 39C, Wyndham in the Kimberley set for 43C, and Gascoyne Junction a maximum of 44C.

Friday now marks the 9th day in December that Perth experienced a maximum above 35C, only 13 days into the month. The previous record was 13 days in the whole month above 35C.

As a result of the extreme temperatures, severe fire danger was forecast for 11 regions: the coastal central west north, coastal central west south, lower west coast, lower west inland, Gascoyne coast, north interior, inland central west – north, Leeuwin, Nelson, Stirling inland and Beaufort.

And that heatwave will spread next week, hitting South Australia by Sunday.

Adelaide is forecast for maximums of 29C on Sunday, 35C on Monday, 40C on Tuesday and Wednesday, and 41C on Thursday.

From Monday to Wednesday, the heatwave conditions will cover all of SA. At the same time, nearly the whole country will experience at least low-intensity heatwave conditions.

The heatwave will be extreme in SA, western NSW and southwestern Queensland, according to the bureau.

The NSW Rural Fire Service says that the hotter temperatures next week would see bushfire conditions deteriorate.

At the same time, severe storms are forecast for Queensland on Friday.