Hazardous fire weather conditions have put the state on alert with a total fire ban declared across SA on Thursday.
Regional centres are set to sweat with temperatures into the 40s with Port Pirie, Port Augusta, Kimba and Wudinna all forecast to hit 40C with Coober Pedy set for 41C.
By 6am, it was already 28C in Adelaide, after hovering around the low to mid 20s all night, and the metropolitan area is set to reach as high as 37C at Elizabeth and 34C in the city.
Temperatures will hit the mid-to-high 30s in the Mount Lofty Ranges, York Peninsula, the South-East, Murraylands and the Riverland, where most towns will push up to 39C.
Total fire bans were declared for Wednesday , after a mild start to summer on Monday and Tuesday.
The Bureau of Meteorology said November’s unusually cool conditions – half a degree below average across SA and the coolest since 2022 – helped delay the start of dangerous fire weather.
Some southern districts also recorded above-average rainfall, contributing to the latest first total fire ban in 20 years, issued on November 24.
Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Chris Kent said extreme fire danger across the West Coast and Eastern Eyre Peninsula would extend across much of the south on Thursday as dry, hot and windy conditions move east ahead of a dry change.
Temperatures on Thursday are expected to climb into the mid to high 30s across agricultural areas and into the low 40s across the north – about 8–10C above average for December.
Kent said the dry and gusty north to northwesterly winds – expected to reach 30–40km/h – would peak during the late morning before a dry change moves across the Lower Eyre Peninsula and Kangaroo Island.
Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Ranges should see the change late afternoon before it pushes into the Murraylands, Mid North, Riverland and Eastern Eyre Peninsula during the evening.
“Fire danger will ease once the change moves through,” he said.
“But the gusty southwesterly winds behind it will still pose issues for any ongoing fires, particularly around Adelaide and the Mount Lofty Ranges as the change arrives late afternoon.”
Thursday will also see the chance of a shower over the far west and far south, mainly during the afternoon and far west and south later.
Temperatures are set to drop for Adelaide after Thursday, with a sunny day with a top of 26C forecast for Friday and 22C for Saturday with a possible shower and down to a high of 21C for Sunday.
Cooler south to southwesterly winds over the weekend will reduce fire danger across most districts, according to the bureau.
CFS Executive Director Statewide Operations Brenton Hastie said Thursday “will not be a day to be taken lightly”.
He urged people conducting harvest or machinery work to follow grain harvesting guidelines and ensure bushfire survival plans were communicated with family.
He said SA was still facing an average fire season overall, with late spring rain delaying grassfire risk but longer-term dryness lingering across forested areas including the Mid North, Mount Lofty Ranges and Lower South East.
