Townsville weather: Bureau of Meteorology forecasts a hot and stormy week for North Queensland

The weekend’s wet weather won’t be the last to hit the region with a heatwave and unstable conditions brewing severe storms for North Queensland this week. Check out the forecast.

Lightning strikes during Sunday night's storms over Townsville, January 12, 2025. Craig Clifford took this image from Aitkenvale, shooting east. Photo: Craig Clifford

Severe heat and unstable conditions will brew storms throughout North Queensland this week following a weekend of damaging weather in the region.

Queensland will be facing a heatwave this week with a warning from the Bureau of Meteorology that parts of North Queensland, including around the Ingham area, will face extreme heat conditions.

Meteorologist Shane Kennedy said this came off the back of a weekend of severe thunderstorms.

“We had quite a few showers and thunderstorms across the weekend particularly on the Sunday, we had a few severe thunderstorms move through,” he said.

“We did have a severe thunderstorm at Charters Towers on Saturday afternoon, which did some damage there and then we had some follow up showers and thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon which this time made it to the coast with a bit more vigour.”

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a three-day heatwave warning for Queensland starting Monday 13/01 to 15/01

Townsville Field training area recorded winds of 98 kilometres per hour.

“Anything above 90 kilometres is considered a damaging wind gust … and we saw some reasonable rainfall as well, typically in that five to 25 millimetre range around Townsville itself,” Mr Kennedy said.

More rainfall and severe thunderstorms are expected as the weather heats up as Townsville prepares for temperatures of around 33 degrees while Ingham will experience 35 to 36 degrees.

“You could see some isolated severe thunderstorms around the Hughendon, Richmond areas again today, possibly charters towers but a bit less likely around the Townsville coast today,” he said.

“There’s a better chance of seeing showers and storms on Tuesday and Wednesday and we may see some isolated severe thunderstorms as well.”

“It will be pretty humid and sticky unfortunately, unless there is a shower we wont be seeing much relief and that heat will be helping with the showers … so a lot of that heating unstable air, making those unsettled explosive conditions.”

Three day forecast

Tuesday 14:

Townsville: Max 33 degrees with a 50 per cent chance of rain.

Ingham: Max 34 degrees with a 40 per cent chance of rain.

Ayr: Max 34 degrees with a 60 per cent chance of rain.

Charters Towers: Max 37 degrees with a 40 per cent chance of rain.

Hughendon: Max 41 degrees with a 40 per cent chance of rain.

Wednesday 15:

Townsville: Max 34 degrees with a 40 per cent chance of rain.

Ingham: Max 37 degrees with a 50 per cent chance of rain.

Ayr: Max 34 degrees with a 40 per cent chance of rain.

Charters Towers: Max 38 degrees with a 50 per cent chance of rain.

Hughendon: Max 41 degrees with a 60 per cent chance of rain.

Thursday 16:

Townsville: Max 34 degrees with a 60 per cent chance of rain.

Ingham: Max 37 degrees with a 70 per cent chance of rain.

Ayr: Max 35 degrees with a 60 per cent chance of rain.

Charters Towers: Max 37 degrees with a 60 per cent chance of rain.

Hughendon: Max 37 degrees with a 60 per cent chance of rain.

Originally published as Townsville weather: Bureau of Meteorology forecasts a hot and stormy week for North Queensland