Thunderstorms arrive on time after mercury soars on public holiday

The stormy weather forecasters said was likely to hit Adelaide well and truly arrived on Monday night.

A spectacular light show has exploded over Adelaide as predictions of a long weekend thunderstorm came true on Monday evening.
The lightning, then the rain, burst into life over the city at about 9.30pm.

The mercury was expected to soar on the final day of the October long weekend – before temperatures drop for the rest of the week.

Temperatures for Monday were forecast to rise above 30C with risk of fire and thunderstorms, according to a Bureau of Meteorology spokesman.

“Tomorrow it’s tossing up between 31C and 32C in the city,” he said.

“We could even see a thunderstorm in Adelaide through the evening.

“There’s an increasing fire danger risk across the state as well.”

The spokesman said a cool change will hit Adelaide on Monday evening, with Tuesday expected to reach a maximum temperature of 20C with a chance of showers.

Temperatures are forecasted to continue dropping with Wednesday set to be the coldest day of the week at 16C, with a high chance of showers in the morning and afternoon.

“It’ll feel like a return to winter from Wednesday,” the spokesman said.

Forecasts predicted Thursday, Friday and Saturday would be partly cloudy, with a slight warm-up to 19C by Saturday.

It follows a “really warm end” to September with 31.5C recorded on Saturday making it the warmest September day since 2011.