Australia Weather News

Sunset over Adelaide amid smoke haze from Victoria's bushfires. (ABC News: Olivia Mason)

South Australia's heatwave has prompted a warning about the "significant" risk posed by falling branches from "drought-stressed" trees, as Adelaide records its first back-to-back days above 40 degrees Celsius since 2019.

The weather bureau has also said smoke haze which has blanketed the city for the past three days, after drifting more than 200 kilometres from Victoria's bushfire grounds, will slowly start to dissipate amid a wind change.

Sweltering temperatures are currently causing discomfort across South Australia, with SA Health confirming several people sought medical help for "heat-related illness" over the weekend.

While it has been assessed as "low-intensity" for much of the state, the heatwave has been deemed "severe" in some areas.

The temperature was forecast to reach 43C in Murray Bridge on Monday, 44C in Wudinna and Tarcoola, and 46C in the outback community of Oak Valley.

"Heatwaves are a silent killer. We don't always see the impacts but we know the impacts are there," State Emergency Service (SES) chief of staff Robert Charlton said.

"Think about loved ones, think about the elderly, the young and perhaps those who might be more susceptible."

Adelaide reached a top of 40.5C on Sunday and has again climbed above 40C on Monday — the first time that had occurred, the Bureau of Meteorology's (BOM) Jon Fischer said, since 2019.

"It is the most significant hot spell of the summer so far. Today is the peak in temperatures throughout the state," he said.

"With the drought stress that many trees are experiencing along with the heat and then some gusty winds to follow that risk of branches and trees coming down is significant."

The SES said it had received "about a hundred" requests for assistance in the last few days, "particularly relating to trees down".

"There's certainly still a risk of trees coming down. We may see that over the next few days as trees become stressed from the heat, [such as] gums," Mr Charlton said.

"We encourage people to not park under them or not camp under particularly those types of trees."

SA Health said the heat had the potential to "exacerbate" chronic health conditions such as heart disease, lung disease and kidney problems.

Public medical consultant Kimberly Humphrey said there were about eight known cases of heat-related presentations at SA hospitals, but the actual number was likely higher.

"We do have advisories that go out to our hospitals and emergency departments just to alert them to the fact that they may see increased patients, they may see increased heat-related illness," Dr Humphrey said.

"We don't have a good way of accounting for all of those people.

"On Saturday there was one person who presented with direct heat-related illness and on Sunday I think there were about seven."

Electricity authority SA Power Networks said it had "no significant concerns" about the likelihood of power outages, but said it was "always sensible" to prepare for that possibility.

Several hundred people were without power across Adelaide on Monday afternoon, with the SA Power Networks website listing several reasons for the outages, including damage to equipment and a cable fault.

Spokesperson Cecilia Schutz said there had been several planned outages for maintenance reasons, but that the organisation's hot weather policy had been activated.

"We will only proceed with scheduled works if we can get them complete before the temperature hits 37C," she said.

"Our messages to the community over this next few days of heat are: have a back-up plan, consider what you might need on your property if you lose power, charge critical devices."

Haze over South Australia to ease

Parts of South Australia have been blanketed in haze in recent days, caused by smoke drift from Victoria's bushfires.

The smoke prompted warnings about air quality, with the Country Fire Service (CFS) on Saturday urging residents to keep windows and doors closed.

"We want people to take care, particularly if you have any respiratory concerns," CFS state duty officer Ann Letcher told ABC Radio Adelaide on Saturday morning.

The BOM said it expected that smoke to dissipate in the coming days.

"We've had lots of smoke drift into our state from fires in western Victoria … but as we move through the next day or two air quality should continue to improve," Mr Fischer said.

"The winds are becoming more favourable to direct that smoke away from South Australia."

Mr Fischer said there would be more heat on Tuesday, but a gusty southerly change would lead to milder conditions around coastal areas.

"The temperatures are still going to remain near to above average right throughout the week and then we're going to see temperatures start to increase again towards the weekend," he said.

ABC