Boy, what a scorcher

SUMMER arrived early on Sunday as Ipswich's temperature hit a high of 37.5 degrees.

Enjoying the new River Heart parkland Stage 2 water park (from left) are Madison Fenech, 12, of One Mile, and Jade Gilbert, 11, of Woodend. . Picture: David Nielsen

SUMMER arrived early yesterday as Ipswich's temperature hit a high of 37.5 degrees.

The city was the hottest part of the south-east corner with the Bureau of Meteorology's Amberley station recording the maximum at 2.12pm, 10 degrees above the October average.

The heat, combined with relative humidity of only 10% and wind gusts that reached 54kmh put the city's firefighters on high alert.

Crews battled to contain fires in the Lockyer Valley and South Ripley on Saturday hoping to get the blazes under control before what was the biggest fire risk of the season.

They conducted extensive back- burning and built fire breaks to contain the fires before they re-emerged under conditions on Sunday.

Queensland Fire and Rescue area director for rural operations Corey Bock the South Ripley blaze burnt more than 250 hectares of land.

"That fire is in a lot of inaccessible country," he said.

"It's being fanned by the strong westerlies coming in, and is in some steep undulating country. We've been able to hold it though."

Mr Bock said while neither the South Ripley nor Glen Cairn fire south of Gatton had threatened any properties, the QFRS was treating them very seriously.

"If any of these got away across grasslands it could get out of hand quickly.

"We had a Fire Danger Index (yesterday) of 55, the highest it's been so far this year," he said.

"To put that in context we've lost houses as low as 40."

Mr Bock said the risk of fires was expected to decrease today before rising again throughout the week.

"On Thursday we're expecting a Fire Danger Index of 70," he said.

"That could easily change within the next four days though."

Ipswich residents flocked to the new Riverheart Parklands to escape the heat.

The water park was packed throughout the day with dozens of children and families making the most of the recently opened area.

While yesterday's high of 37.5 degrees was well above last year's highest October temperature of 30.4 degrees, it wasn't a record.

An October maximum of 41.1 degrees was recorded on October 30 in 1958.

Acccording to the BOM, Ipswich was hotter than other sites in the south-east.

Gatton was less than a degree cooler with a maximum of 36.6 degrees while Brisbane was a balmy 31.6 degrees.

What are you doing to escape the heat? Tell us below.

Originally published as Boy, what a scorcher