While Australia's eastern states are stuck in a cool, wet and cloudy weather pattern, most other areas of the country are about to experience a hot start to summer.

A high pressure ridge extending across southern Australia will allow a heat trough to develop over the northern and central of the continent during the next several days. This setup will cause a large mass of hot air to build up across central and northern Australia, with some of this heat also venturing towards the southern and western coasts.

After reaching the low thirties in Alice Springs on Monday, temperatures are forecast to hit 37 to 39 degrees between Tuesday and Saturday. Further north, WA’s Marble Bar is tipped to reach 44 to 46 degrees from Tuesday until at least Sunday.

Image: Forecast surface air temperature on Monday afternoon, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

Large areas of central and northern Australia will experience a Severe to Extreme heatwave in the opening days of summer.

Some of this warmth will travel down towards southern Australia as northern winds develop ahead of an approaching cold front.

Image: Forecast surface air temperature on Tuesday afternoon, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

A run of three days of 30 degrees and over is on the cards between Monday and Thursday for both Adelaide and Melbourne. This heat will be noticeable, given warm days have been few and far between for both cities in recent weeks amid frequent rain and cloud cover.

Melbourne hasn’t had a single day over 30 degrees for the last six months. In Adelaide, there have only been two days over 30 degrees so far this month, which is well below the 15 days at or above 30 degrees during November 2020.

Image: Forecast surface air temperature on Wednesday afternoon, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

The warmth is expected to peak in Adelaide on Tuesday, with 33 degrees on the forecast, which is a whopping nine degrees above the November average.

Melbourne’s temperature is forecast to top 31 degrees on Thursday, which is also nearly nine degrees above normal.

Hobart’s maximum temperature is also forecast to be 7 to 9 degrees above average on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, topping out around 24 to 27 degrees.

This week’s spell of warm days and nights will come to an abrupt end for southern Australia when a cold front arrives on Thursday.

Temperatures will drop up to four degrees behind the cold front, which will arrive in Adelaide on Thursday morning and Melbourne and Hobart in the evening.

Image: Forecast surface air temperature on Thursday afternoon, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

Meanwhile, Australia’s eastern states are also set to warm up on Thursday and Friday. However, it won’t be quite as warm in the east and temperatures will only reach around two degrees above average for this time of year.

On the other side of the country, Perth will get a taste of the heat towards the end of the week. The city is forecast to have at least three days in the low-to-mid thirties starting from this Friday.