Large portions of the state of Queensland have reported temperatures that are approximately 10 degrees higher than the usual as a result of the over two dozen bushfires that have caused alerts to be issued across the state.
A meteorologist by the name of Livio Regano stated that the weather pattern in Queensland was not officially a heatwave at this stage, despite the temperatures being significantly higher than the normal for the month of October due to bushfires.
According to Regano, “It is most certainly moving in that direction.” Many locations are seeing temperatures that are up to 10 degrees higher than the average, and other locations are even experiencing temperatures that are considerably higher.
“At the moment, these significantly higher than average temperatures are being experienced everywhere inland, particularly in the south and the center of the country, but less so in the tropics.
“It’s not just today, and it will probably be even more so in the days that are to come, leading up to that cool change later in the week.”
More than twenty blaze warnings were in effect across the state of Queensland as of 2:00 p.m. on Monday, stretching from Cape York to the Gold Coast. The conditions were a challenge for firefighters. Because the bushfires were moving so quickly, residents of the areas surrounding Millmerran Downs, Cypress Gardens, and Tara were ordered to leave their homes immediately.
Despite the fact that temperatures are forecasted to dip later this week, Regano said that the weather could continue to be challenging in certain sections of the state.
“It’ll be getting quite windy actually, and we’re a bit concerned about fire danger in the channel country after the change has gone through, because we’ll see a really big south-easterly change,” Regano said. “We’ll see a really big change in the direction of the wind.”
Cyclone Lola, which has formed in the south Pacific, is another storm that meteorologists are monitoring closely. If it proceeds westward into Australia’s area of responsibility, it will go down in history as a significant storm. Since accurate records began being kept in the 1970s, there has not been a cyclone that was documented in the Coral Sea during the month of October.
The cyclone season in Australia typically runs from November to April, with the most intense storms often striking Queensland in the months of February and March.
It is anticipated that by the time it makes landfall in Vanuatu late on Wednesday, Lola will have strengthened to the point where it will be a category three hurricane.
The system is forecast to proceed toward the south-west and then become less intense as it makes its way into New Caledonia; however, the Bureau of Meteorology does not anticipate that it will get anywhere near the coast of Queensland.
According to the agency, there has been a decrease in the number of tropical cyclones that have affected Australia during El Nio years. However, it issued a warning that there was a possibility for that to alter during this hurricane season given the current conditions.
“Globally, ocean temperatures are the warmest that they have been on record for any month since April,” a bureau spokesperson said. “This is the case for any month that we have records for.”
In spite of El Nio’s forecast for a hotter and dryer summer across Australia, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a warning that residents of Queensland should continue to prepare for the possibility of flooding and tropical cyclones.
