Highest winter temperature record broken in Australia

Sydney: A remote region in northwestern Australia set a new all-time national record for the highest winter temperature, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said on Tuesday.

The weather station at Yampi Sound, approximately 2,000 km north of Perth in the state of Western Australia (WA), recorded a maximum temperature of 41.6 degrees Celsius on Monday afternoon, Xinhua news agency reported.

It marks the hottest temperature ever recorded in Australia in winter, beating the previous record of 41.2 degrees Celsius set in the nearby town of West Roebuck on August 23, 2020.

In a post on social media, the BoM said that many locations across Australia have broken winter temperature records amid unseasonably hot weather, with maximum temperatures 5-16 degrees Celsius above the August average across the continent.

The BoM attributed the unseasonal heat to persistent areas of high pressure over central and northern Australia for much of August that have brought clear skies and consistent daytime heating from the sun over a large area.

"Normally, rainbands, clouds, or cold fronts would be pushing through, clearing away the hot air. Instead, the warm air has stagnated, and the heat has continued to build, creating a hot airmass," it said. "The heat is expected to persist through central and northern parts of Australia until at least next week."

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that in the northeastern state of Queensland, the rural town of Birdsville recorded a maximum temperature of 38.4C on Monday, 0.1C lower than the state winter record.

Oodnadatta in the outback of the state of South Australia (SA) hit 39.4C on Saturday, beating the state's previous highest winter temperature by three degrees, Xinhua news agency reported quoting ABC.