Australia Could Break Heat Record this Week

They have striven to become Asia Pacific's King of Coal. Now they're poised to reap the whirlwind.

With the land down under beset by massive brushfires and no end in sight, Australians are expected to set another climate change all-time-best this week, 50 Five-Ohmygawd + degrees Celsius.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned that an unprecedented heatwave in Western Australia could make its way east and bring searing temperatures across southern Australia over the next week or so.

BOM meteorologist Diana Eadie said there had been extraordinary temperatures across WA in the last few days and this would continue over the weekend.

The high temperatures will shift eastwards and will intensify towards the end of the week.

“We’re likely to see a broad part of the country experiencing temperatures in excess of 45 degrees from Wednesday onwards,” Ms Eadie said.

“We’ll see exceptional heat and there is the potential that we could see some records broken.”

It’s possible the record for Australia’s hottest day could fall.

The South Australian outback town of Oodnadatta, located about 873 kilometres north of Adelaide and about five hours drive from opal mining town Coober Pedy, currently holds the record for the highest ever recorded temperature of 50.7C, which was set in January 1960.

The record for the highest average temperature for Australia as a whole may also be exceeded. The current record stands at 40.3 degrees and this was set in January 2013.