A late blast of summer heat Down Under

The weather appeared to be playing something of an April fool’s joke across much of South Australia, Victoria and parts of Tasmania on Tuesday. Many parts had their hottest April day in nine years with temperatures generally reaching the low to mid 30’s Celsius.

Meanwhile, some centres actually had their hottest April day in history. Hobart, Tasmania broke a 120 year old record with an afternoon temperature of 31 Celsius. This is 14 degrees above the monthly record and beats the previous April maximum set in 1941.

This does of course come at the end of summer, but it does give an indication of just how strong the sun can be this late in the season. Nearby, Bushy Park had its hottest April day in 53 days with a high of 31.6 Celsius.

Back on the mainland, Mt Gambier in South Australia recorded a top temperature of 35.7 Celsius. Breaking an April record set 72 years ago. The state capital, Adelaide reached 36.8 degrees.

The top temperature recorded anywhere was a very impressive 40.1 Celsius at Ceduna on the west coast of South Australia. Surprisingly this was actually short of their record set in 2005.

Normal service will soon be resumed as cooler air moves in from the west. Adelaide can look forward to a top temperature of 23 degrees on Wednesday as a classic ‘southerly-buster’ feeds a band of showery rain across the Great Australian Bight.