Brisbane weather: Southeast to endure hot nights before heatwave abates
People hoping to escape the heatwave in one of Brisbane’s biggest shopping centres have been met with “sauna-like” conditions, after the city sweated through apparent “feels like” temperatures in the mid-30s overnight.
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Shoppers hoping to escape Brisbane’s heatwave in the cool halls of Westfield Chermside have hit a snag after the airconditioning stopped working.
Retail shop assistants at the busy centre said they noticed it was “warmer than usual” inside when they started work early this morning.
“I’m usually freezing in here but you can definitely feel it,” they said.
Another attendant said it felt like a “sauna” in their shop, and shoppers were taking to social media to warn others about the outages.
It’s understood the outages were sporadic, with some areas of the centre copping the heat worse than others.
Queensland’s forecasted energy needs for Friday hit a record 10,600 MW, 600MW higher than usual peak demand.
But while the state didn’t end up needing that much power Energy Minister Mick de Brenni said it had been a “real test for Queensland’s energy system”.
“Our system is incredibly strong,” he said.
“We have the potential to work our way through days, weeks, or a very severe heatwave as long as the system performs as it does.”
Westfield has been contacted for comment.
South East Queensland’s heatwave conditions will dissipate by Monday or Tuesday, but not before slapping Queenslanders with sticky overnight temperatures, the Bureau of Meteorology said.
Brisbane residents sweated through the hottest day of the year so far as temperatures soared to 35 degrees on Friday, with energy usage almost hitting a record high.
At 11.30am on Friday, the Bureau of Meteorology recorded that Brisbane hit 35 degrees, the highest temperature of 2022 so far.
Temperatures dropped to a steamy 26C overnight, but the apparent “feels like” temperature of never dipped below 32C.
Humidity soared to almost 90 per cent in the early hours of Saturday morning which made the already sticky night feel several degrees higher than average temperatures.
At 8am on Saturday morning, temperatures hit 30 degrees, but the apparent “feels like temperature” was 33.9 degrees.
The Australian Energy Market Operator executed emergency measures on Friday to prevent black outs as the demand for electricity was tracking to hit a record high.
The state’s highest demand record was hit in May last year (10,500 megawatts), but it fell short on Friday, hitting 9815 megawatts, due to a weather change.
“It was tracking towards a record due to the high humidity and high temperatures and then there was a significant change in weather that impacted demand and therefore saw the maximum demand for the day reach close to 10,000MW,” a spokesman said.
A trough was expected to reach the southeast coastline on Saturday, bringing possible storms to places north of Caboolture and scattered showers to help slightly cool the remainder of the southeast.
South East Queenslanders were at the mercy of a brutal heatwave on Friday, with stifling temperatures and muggy conditions.
Brisbane temperatures soared beyond 30C before 9am on Friday, with the city reaching hotter temperatures than Cairns by lunchtime.
Residents in the state’s southeastern interior suffered the worst of the heat, with Chinchilla and Gatton each hitting tops of 36C and Dalby 38C.
Logan also reached a sweltering 36C, with Brisbane and Ipswich not far behind at 35C, however, high humidity levels saw the majority of South East Queenslanders punished with apparent temperatures of around 37C for most of the day, with the exception of Gladstone's sweltering apparent temperature of 42.5C.
FRIDAY’S APPARENT TEMPERATURES
Brisbane: Felt like 37.9C by 11am, max actual temp reached: 35.4C
Gold Coast: Felt like 32.5C by 11am, max actual temp reached: 32.5C
Sunshine Coast: Felt like 30.3C by 11am, max actual temp reached: 31.8C
Moreton Bay: Felt like 33C by 11am, max actual temp reached: 29.9C
Ipswich: Felt like 36.6C by 11am, max actual temp reached: 35.5C
Logan: Felt like 37.4C by 11am, max actual temp reached: 36.6
Toowoomba: Felt like 28.3C by 11am, max actual temp reached: 32.8C
Bundaberg: Felt like 34C at 12pm, max actual temp reached: 31.7C
Cairns: Felt like 33.7C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 32.9C
Chinchilla: Felt like 34.8C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 36.8C
Dalby: Felt like 31.7C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 38.1C
Gatton: Felt like 37.7C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 36.6C
Gladstone: Felt like 42.5C by 3pm, max actual temp reached: 35.6C
Gympie: Felt like 35.2C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 32.9C
Kingaroy: Felt like 33.1C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 33.5C
Mackay: Felt like 36.6C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 35.2C
Maryborough: Felt like 35.4C, max actual temp reached: 32.4C
Noosa Heads: Felt like 35.5C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 30.6C
Rockhampton: Felt like 35.4C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 35.8C
Roma: Felt like 30.7C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 38.5C
Townsville: Felt like 35.7C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 33.7C
Stanthorpe: Felt like 29.8C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 30.2C
Warwick: Felt like 33.1C by 12pm, max actual temp reached: 34C
Whitsundays: Felt like 36.2C by 12p, max actual temp reached: 31.8C
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