Temperatures failed to drop below 35.2ºC at Birdsville on Tuesday morning, setting a new high minimum temperature record for Queensland.

A very hot air mass combined with patchy nocturnal cloud caused the temperatures to remain exceptionally high in Birdsville on Monday night into Tuesday morning.

After reaching a high of 45.0ºC on Monday afternoon, the temperature was still above 40ºC at 11pm that night. At 2am Tuesday it had only cooled to 38ºC and the coolest point of the morning was 35.2ºC at 5:58am.

Tuesday morning's minimum of 35.2ºC at Birdsville was about 9ºC above the long-term average for a January morning. Impressively, it was also the highest minimum temperature ever record in Qld and the equal 10th highest minimum temperature on recorded in Australia.

The previous high minimum temperature record in Qld was 35.1ºC at Ballera Gas Field on January 26, 2019, while the Australian national record stands at 36.6ºC from Wanaaring, NSW also on January 26, 2019.

The extreme heat currently affecting southwest Qld is part of a broader hot air mass spread over parts of central, southern and northwestern Australia this week, where it is also challenging records.