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Adelaide suburbs top 40°C in Thursday scorcher

Anthony Sharwood, Thursday December 5, 2024 - 15:46 AEDT

Adelaide's northern suburbs have topped 40°C while the city’s main weather station at West Terrace/ngayirdapira came close, reaching 39.8°C just before 2pm local time this Thursday.

That makes Adelaide the first Australian capital city to top 40 degrees in the latter half of 2024 after Sydney came super close in the last week of November, when the outer western suburb of Penrith hit 39.9°C.

Image: Live temps across South Australia at 2:30pm (ACDT) on Thursday, December 5, 2024.

Elsewhere in South Australia, it has been even hotter, and not just in the state's far north where SA's hottest temps often occur.

Indeed, the hottest air has been in the south of the state. Some of today's scorching observations include:

43.5°C at Ceduna on the coastline to the east of the Eyre Peninsula

43.5°C at Nullarbor, a tiny locality about 300km west of Ceduna

42.5°C at Port Augusta, at the northern tip of Spencer Gulf

42.3°C at Marree Airport in the North East Pastoral forecast district

42.1°C at Roseworthy, a town near Gawler about an hour north of Adelaide

The good news for both fans and players attending Friday's second men's cricket Test between Australia and India at the Adelaide Oval is that cooler weather is coming.

Image: Synoptic chart for Australia at 11am on Thursday, December 5, 2024.

Friday will still be hot with the mercury pushing well into the 30s, but things should cool down in the afternoon with the likely arrival of some showers. Storms are possible too.

By Saturday, Adelaide and southern parts of SA will see max temps back down into the mid-20s for a couple of days thanks to cooler southerly winds circulating anti-clockwise around that high pressure system centred southwest of WA.

Image: Synoptic chart for Australia at 11am on Saturday, December 5, 2024.

Meanwhile after Adelaide's heat today, there's no sign of 40-degree temps for any Australian capital city in the next week, although it will be hot at times in most of them.

For the southern capitals, temperatures in the mid-30s can be expected in Melbourne on Friday, Canberra and parts of Sydney on Saturday, Brisbane on Sunday, and in Perth by midweek next week.

Our Adelaide forecast is here.

- Weatherzone

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