Heatwave scorches states from east to west as temperatures soar across Australia

Photograph: Mast Irham/EPA

A withering heatwave has spread across three states with temperatures in parts of northern Western Australia reaching towards 50C, and the goldmining town of Kalgoorlie still without power after a rare super-cell storm.

Heat warnings have been issued to residents in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia about rising temperatures on Sunday, with the Pilbara in northern WA a hotspot.

The small regional town of Paraburdoo, roughly 1,500km north of Perth, was forecast to hit 48C on Sunday after reportedly reaching 47.9C on Saturday. Bureau of Meteorology measurements showed temperatures had reached 45.8C as of noon on Sunday.

The BoM’s Dean Narramore said WA’s Pilbara region was looking at severe-to-extreme heatwave conditions, with temperatures of 48C to 49C expected.

“We could even see 50C around the Pilbara, but whether that hits one of our official observation stations, is not certain,” he said.

Those conditions mean large parts of the mainland are going to be subject to low-intensity heatwave conditions, Narramore said.

The hottest Australian temperature ever recorded was 50.7C in the Pilbara town of Onslow on 13 January 2023.

On the east coast, Sydney sweltered through its hottest day of the year with temperatures in several areas climbing above 37C and Holsworthy airbase reaching 38.5C as of 3pm.

Sydney was initially forecast to reach 40C in parts of the western suburbs before a cool change from the south was expected to lower temperatures heading into Monday.

Metropolitan Adelaide has largely been spared but in parts of north and northwest South Australia the mercury climbed above 40C, with recordings from Marree airport reaching 42.6C at 2.40pm.

Southeast Queensland temperatures are expected to climb to the high 30s to low 40s in the coming days, and residents have been asked to look after vulnerable people including elderly people, young children, and pregnant women.

In Kalgoorlie, 3,800 residents of have woken up to another day without power after a supercell storm tore through transmission lines earlier in the weak, severing the goldmining town from the grid. Western Power has been working to resolve the problem, but Kalgoorlie residents – along with 1,800 people in the Perth Hills, 1,500 people in the Wheatbelt and 100 people in the Goldfields – still had not been reconnected as of Saturday afternoon.

Authorities have said they will investigate after two gas generators that were supposed to provide backup power to Kalgoorlie tripped and failed, leaving the town’s residents without power for air conditioning or refrigeration as the heatwave settled in.