An unusual weather phenomenon is taking place in the Red Centre.
Central Australia has been in the grips of a severe heatwave this week, baking in temperatures hot enough to warrant warnings from the Bureau of Meteorology.
Key points:
- Central Australia has been in the grips of a heatwave
- A brief cool reprieve has been forecast before temperatures soar back up again
- A climate scientist says the weather is 'on steroids' as a consequence of climate change
But in a swift turn of events there's about to be a significant cool reprieve.
Here's what we know about the big "cold change" happening in the middle of Australia.
Sally Cutter, senior meteorologist at the NT Bureau of Meteorology, said changes in temperature are common but one as significant as this is unusual.
"The significant thing about this is how large the drop is, this is a very large drop in those temperatures," she said.
"It's going to be very much a significant cold change."
A three-day heatwave settled on Central Australia on Wednesday and by Friday the mercury reached around 45 degrees Celsius in Alice Springs.
Ms Cutter said the Red Centre can expect showers, storms, windy conditions and a plunge in temperatures over the weekend.
"We could see temperatures drop in the centre and the eastern parts to the low 20s … [in the] Simpson region it's going to be really noticeable," she said.
Temperatures reached 44C on Friday in the remote community of Finke, about 400 kilometres south of Alice Springs, and are expected to plunge to a maximum of just 20C in Finke on Sunday.
That's a difference of 24C.
What's triggered the shift?
Ms Cutter says a northerly flow shifting down from the tropics is bringing moisture to Central Australia.
That's against a backdrop of a really tight pressure gradient and a high-pressure system making its way to the centre.
In Alice Springs, Holly and her two children said they hadn't been too bothered by the severe heatwave conditions.
"We've been making sure we get out early, but we love the hot weather," Holly said.
Will the cool reprieve hang around?
Unfortunately not.
Ms Cutter said with the summer solstice — the longest day of the year – imminent, the sun is almost overhead Central Australia at the moment.
So while widespread showers and storms are expected to bring cloud cover over the weekend, cooling down the region, that is expected to clear pretty quickly.
"Which means the sun's going to come out," Ms Cutter said.
"And once the sun comes out, you can actually see temperatures rise very quickly …. we're going to see them return up into the 30s by the start of the week."
Belinda Greenwood-Smith from the Centre for Disease Control in Alice Springs said that with temperatures tipped to soar back up "everybody needs to be careful".
"Heat can be quite dangerous particularly for people at the extremes of age or who have pre-existing medical conditions," she said.
"When you overheat your body tries to compensate for the heat, but it gets to a point where it's unable to and it can lead to stroke."
The average human body temperature runs at 36C to 37C, Ms Greenwood-Smith said, so when the outside temperature exceeded that it was difficult to get rid of the excess heat.
She said even life-long Territorians who've adapted to the heat need to be wary.
"We are still vulnerable, and we are not as tough as we think we are," she said.
Is this unusual weather climate change?
Not all of the extreme weather events can be immediately attributed to climate change but Simon Bradshaw, a climate scientist from the Climate Council, says we are "very much living with the consequences of past inaction".
"What we see with climate change is our weather on steroids," he said.
"Everything we see today is happening in an atmosphere that's wetter, that's warmer and that is packing more energy."
Scientists have confirmed 2023 will be the hottest year on record, with six record-breaking months.
Yet Dr Bradshaw says conditions will only continue to get hotter and these unusual cool spells will likely become few and far between.
What's happening in the rest of the Northern Territory?
The Bureau's Ms Cutter says rain and storms are expected to continue this week in the Top End, although they will be accompanied by hot nights.
She said the El Niño climate pattern is drawing out and lengthening the Top End build up until January.
"We've had a slow start to the build up, so [in terms of rainfall] we are sitting below where we would usually be for this time of year on average," Ms Cutter said.
"Because of the El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole we are expecting a later onset of the monsoon."
The Bureau is also watching an approaching trough, which could move off the coast of the Top End and develop into a tropical low.
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