Queensland weather: Brisbane endures temperatures over 20C for 61 consecutive nights

Brisbane’s record run of hot nights has extended to 61 with warnings it will get worse before it gets better with more heatwave conditions incoming.

Brisbane has endured 61 consecutive nights where temperatures have not dropped below 20C – breaking the previous record of 59 nights – as an incoming heatwave offers little reprieve.

The coolest it got overnight was 22.6C at 5am, while today it is expected to climb to 31C before a blast of heat pushes the daytime maximum to 33C.

New Year’s Eve was the last time the temperature cooled below 20C in Brisbane – when it dropped to 19.9C

It could get as high as 35C in Ipswich on Saturday while communities in the state’s southwest, such as St George and Roma, are expected 40C maximums today and tomorrow.

Brisbane has endured 61 consecutive nights where temperatures have not dropped below 20C. Picture: BOM

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Shane Kennedy said it was likely to get worse before it gets better with hot, humid conditions to persist.

“We’re expecting a trough system to approach and cool things down slightly on Sunday, but it looks like that’ll be delayed a little bit so it’ll still be quite hot for most of Sunday,” he said.

Mr Kennedy said minimum temperatures were likely to hover around 23C, meaning Brisbane’s record run of nights where minimums remained above 20C was likely to be extended.

“[The record] is not likely to end anytime soon, he said.

Mr Kennedy said it could get as low as 20.2C on Wednesday, which was the best chance of the record run ending.

“After that it will probably be too humid or too windy to break that record.”

He said storms were possible on the eastern Darling Downs across the weekend, while there a 30 per cent of showers for parts of the southeast.