Bureau of Meteorology forecasts hot week ahead for South West Qld

South West Queensland is forecast to be hit with a heatwave this week, with temperatures in some parts of the region expected to hit 40C. Find out when the region can expect a reprieve.

The Western Downs is in for a scorcher of a week with temperatures set to reach 40C for the first time this year.

Across the region the week will kick off with low to mid-30C temperatures before sky rocketing to low 40Cs by Thursday.

Dalby is forecast to reach 40C on Thursday, Chinchilla and Miles will hit 42C and Tara is expected to crack 41C.

These temperatures far exceed the maximum for this year with Dalby’s previous hottest day coming on the 14th where the mercury hit 33.9C.

The temperatures are also far above Dalby’s January average of 32.7C and slightly above last year’s highest January day of 38C.

Elsewhere across the South West, Warwick will peak at 37C while Roma will hit a sweltering 43C on Thursday.

Meteorologist Livio Regano said people could expect high temperatures and minimal rainfall throughout the week.

“It is going to get hot really quickly, it has cooled down now temporarily and things are looking quite nice but that will not last long,” he said.

“It doesn’t get much cooler on the weekend, it’ll drop down to the mid 30Cs for a not as hot change.

“We are not expecting much rain, but there may be some storms at the end of the week.”

Mr Regano said the temperatures were typical for this time of year.

“It’s just the direction of the wind, as soon as we lose the southeasterly winds, temperatures just sore,” he said.

“We’ve got the northwest wind coming out of an inland trough, as the trough gets closer it shifts around more to the northwest and drags down tropical air which is much different from air coming from the south which has a cooler origin.

“Northwest winds traditionally on the Downs give us high temperatures and not just day time but night time as well and there will be some humidity with this one as well.”

Mr Regano said a heatwave warning had been issued for the later part of the week and urged residents to stay safe in the heat.

“The severe thunderstorm area is just in tropical inland parts of Queensland nothing around Southern Queensland,” he said.

“When the cooler change arrives at the end of the week you often do get thunderstorms so that is something to watch for but there are no warnings yet.

“There is however a warning for heatwave conditions though towards the end of the week.”

Originally published as Bureau of Meteorology forecasts hot week ahead for South West Qld