Australia is known for its extreme heat, but even in the sweltering northern outback of WA, 48.5ºC in the first fortnight of summer is a warm one.

A mass of hot air has been lingering over northern Australia during the past week, causing a severe to extreme heatwave in parts of WA, the NT and Qld.

On Wednesday, December 7, Marble Bar reached 46.2ºC, becoming the hottest place in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere so far this season.

Just four days later, Mandora soared to 48.5ºC on Sunday, December 11. This was the site’s highest temperature on record, beating 48.4ºC from December 22, 1981, with data available back to 1962.

Mandora’s 48.5ºC on Sunday was less than 1.5ºC off the highest December temperature ever recorded in WA. That unfortunate title goes to Eucla, which reached 49.8ºC on December 19, 2019.

Monday will be another hot one in northern WA, with temperatures reaching the mid-to-high forties over the eastern Pilbara.

Image: Forecast maximum surface air temperature on Monday, December 12, 2022, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

However, increasing cloud, showers and thunderstorms will help to lower daytime temperature over much of northern Australia during the rest of this week.