Parts of southern Australia, including Adelaide, are in the grip of the worst February heatwave in years, with temperatures set to get even hotter over the coming days.

A hot air mass that built up over northwestern Australia in the past week is now spilling into southern Australia ahead of a cold front and associated low pressure trough. This heat can be clearly seen on the three maps below, which show the eastward progression of hot air across southern Australia during the next three days.

Image: Forecast daily maximum temperatures on Wednesday (top), Thursday (middle) and Friday (bottom), according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

On Wednesday, temperatures soared to 46.8ºC at Eucla in the far southeast corner of WA, which is an incredible 21ºC above average for this time of year. This was the equal highest February temperature observed anywhere in Australia for four years, and Eucla’s hottest February day since 2015.

Across the border in SA, Nullarbor hit 45.2ºC as of 4:00pm local time, also its hottest February day in eight years, while Adelaide rose to 38.7ºC, a five-year high for the month.

Temperatures will remain at hazardous levels in and around SA during the next two days and nights, qualifying for a Severe to Extreme heatwave on the Bureau of Meteorology’s scale.

Image: Heatwave forecast for the three-day period from Wednesday to Friday this week. Source: Bureau of Meteorology

In Adelaide, minimum temperatures should be up around 26 to 27ºC on Thursday and Friday mornings, while daytime temperatures should rise to about 39 to 40ºC as well. This would be Adelaide's hottest run of February days in about five years.

This week’s heatwave will also spread into parts of Vic and Tas during the second half of this week.

You can check which areas of Australia are likely to be impacted by this heatwave here, and the latest heatwave warnings are available here.