The very hot conditions in the northern part of Western Australia and around Darwin have continued for almost three weeks, breaking numerous August and early September heat records.
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The record August heat did reach the outstation of Giles on August 26 briefly. Closer to the Albury-Wodonga region, the temperature reached 29.3 degrees at Mildura on Wednesday, September 2.
This is just short of the record high temperature for early September of 30.1 degrees on September 2, 2002.
The very hot conditions in northern WA did extend briefly into outback Northern Territory and into the Queensland Gulf region where Burketown recorded 38.4 on September 4 - its highest for early September since 1975, after a near-record high August reading of 36.9 on the 31st.
There was a similar temperature profile like this one in 1892 and 1976 at Burketown and the heaviest rains in the Albury-Wodonga region occurred in mid-September and the second week of November.
Alice Springs had one of its warmest ever Augusts in 140 years of records, with a mean maximum temperature of 26.1 degrees.
This is more than six degrees higher than that for the previous month, July.
A sudden rise of six degrees at Alice Springs from July to August in the same year does not happen very often - only on nine occasions since 1878.
These were in 1880, 1884, 1892, 1928, 1942, 1955, 197, 2009 and 2013.
Some of these led to very high temperatures at the end of September, during the second and fourth weeks of October, and a fierce heatwave late in November to early December in the Albury-Wodonga region. The coming summer season notably wetter than average.
Darwin has experienced more very hot days during the past week. Tuesday's 37.0 degrees was the hottest for early September on record and equals the longest spell of hot weather for this time of year since 2017.
Port Hedland recorded 40.2 on Wednesday, September 9, also a record high for early September. It was 39.2 on September 4, 2013. Both 2013 and 2017 saw a spring season in North East Victoria a little warmer and drier than normal, with some very hot days late September, mid-October, and near the end of November.
There was heavy rain and thunderstorms around December 3 of both those years and few very hot days a week before Christmas.
Marble Bar recorded 40.2 degrees on Wednesday, September 9, breaking the previous record for early September since 40.0 on September 5, 1944. Other highs for early September were in 1911 and 2013. Unfortunately, Marble Bar now looks set to break the hottest ever September of 1944 when there were heatwave conditions from September 17 to 30. This is a big worry for the Albury-Wodonga region with generally dry conditions for the Spring of 1944 and temperatures above normal.
