Australia Weather News

A cool change on Tuesday will provide welcome relief after the extreme heat experienced across Queensland since the weekend.

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Felim Hanniffy said widespread rainfall was expected across the eastern, interior central and southern parts of the state on Tuesday, with moderate falls of 20 to 40 millimetres forecast.

"There is potential that we could get some even localised heavy falls there, particularly around parts of the Wide Burnett and southern Capricornia, and this could bring some localised falls of 50-100mm there," Mr Hanniffy said.

The widespread cloud coverage will see temperatures plummet, with some parts of central and south-east Queensland expected to feel temperatures up to 19 degrees Celsius cooler compared to the soaring temperatures experienced on Monday.

Records broken before cool change

Brisbane Airport, which recorded a top of 39.1 degrees Celsius on Monday, is forecast to reach only 22 degrees on Tuesday.

Records also fell as the Gold Coast sweltered through its hottest reported October day on Monday.

It reached 38 degrees at the Seaway, marking it as the highest temperature measured at the station since it opened 33 years ago and recording more than one degree above the previous record.

Coolangatta was 38.3 degrees, almost three degrees hotter than the previous record set in 2004.

Ipswich also recorded 40 degrees on Monday.  

But on Tuesday, Toowoomba will hit a top of 17C, while Southport is headed for 23C.

Mr Hanniffy said the drastic temperature change was "pretty exceptional" given there had been some of the highest October temperatures on record.

"We saw some exceptionally high October maximums in the south-east on Monday, and [Tuesday temperatures] certainly will be a significant contrast to what we experienced on Monday with much cooler conditions in the south-east, extensive cloud cover, persistent rain at times and a blustery onshore south-easterly wind," he said.

"So that will certainly take a significant edge off those temperatures, and we're looking at showers broadly across the interior parts of the state as well."

The bureau forecast thunderstorms to develop across the eastern interior, and even parts of North Queensland, particularly south of Cooktown, could see some scattered and even widespread showers.

Severe storms are also possible in Capricornia, Wide Burnett and areas further inland.

Risk of fire remains

Meanwhile, a severe heatwave warning remains in place for the Peninsula, North Tropical Coast and Tablelands and Central Coast and Whitsundays.

A high fire danger warning has been issued for the North and Central West regions, while a moderate fire danger warning remains in place for the rest of the state, excluding south-east coastal regions.

But Mr Hanniffy said once the cooler change came through, fire danger risk would hopefully reduce in the coming days.

"With this extensive cloud cover and persistent showers around much of the east, and some rain as well, that should help alleviate the fire danger," he said.

"We should see the fire dangers back to moderate for most of the state due to all that moisture and shower activity … though they may start to increase again across parts of far-western Queensland through the second half of this week."

A strong wind warning remains in place for the K'gari coast, Sunshine Coast waters, Moreton Bay and Gold Coast waters on Tuesday.