Oodnadatta has just registered the highest winter temperature ever recorded in South Australia as the mercury soars close to 40°C in central Australia.

An unseasonably hot air mass is being drawn across central Australia today by a stream of northwesterly winds flowing between a low pressure system centered over the Great Australian Bight and a high pressure system sitting over Qld.

Image: Modelled temperature and wind at the 850 hPa pressure surface (roughly 1.5km above sea level) on Friday afternoon, showing hot air being drawn across central Australia by a stream of northwesterly winds.

This spring-like air mass caused the temperature to reach 38.5°C in Oodnadatta at 3:23pm ACST on Friday. This is the highest winter temperature ever observed in SA, beating the previous record of 36.5°C, also from Oodnadatta on August 12, 1946.

A few other places in the north of SA also reached the mid-30s on Friday, including 36.4°C at Coober Pedy and Marree, 36°C at Roxby Downs, and 35.3°C at Moomba. These were all new winter records for these locations.

More winter records are likely to be broken in central Australia over the next few days as this unseasonably warm burst of weather continues into the weekend.