Australia Weather News

Adelaide residents have been making the most of unusually warm weather for the end of April, with crowds flocking to the beach ahead of the end of school holidays. finishing.

"I just think it's magnificent and it's lovely to see people out and about — and the dogs, got to have the dogs," said Mary Haywood, while enjoying an ice cream at Henley Beach with her husband, their two dogs and their grandson Nash.

The temperature at the Bureau of Meteorology's West Terrace weather station peaked at 29.7 degrees Celsius at 1:25pm on Thursday, after previous highs of 30.5C on Tuesday and 29.3C on Wednesday.

"It's a really nice day to be at the beach," Nash said.

Senior meteorologist Angus Hines said seeing many successive days above 28C in April was unusual.

"We're seeing some pretty unusually prolonged heat for this time of the year, certainly a feeling back to summer," he said.

"It is really pretty strange to be seeing what would probably be five days in a row above 28C and then we might have one or two cool days, and then another run of days in the mid to upper 20s when we move through next week."

A top of 27C is forecast for Friday and 28C for Saturday — Anzac Day — before a cooler day on Sunday.

Bureau data shows the hottest Anzac Day on record in Adelaide was one year after the end of World War I — in 1919 — when the temperature reached 30.7C, followed by 29.2C in 1942, in the middle of World War II.

Farmers look for a break

South Australian farmers are hoping for rain by Anzac Day to ensure a good start to seeding.

Showers are forecast for the state's agriculture areas on Saturday and Sunday but Mr Hines said rain gauges in the Adelaide region might only reach single digits.

Mallala grain farmer John Lush said his place received 50 millimetres of rain last month, which was wetter than the previous two years but that could pose a different problem.

"The amount of moisture we got now, if we sow a crop, it will come up. But if we don't get follow-up rains, it will die," Mr Lush said.

"So we're really wondering whether we'd start seeding or not … we're waiting to see if there's any more follow-up rain."

Across the state, the highest temperature on Thursday was recorded at Nullarbor, at 34.2C, followed by Ceduna, on 32.7C.

Mr Lush said the cost of farming had increased with rising fertiliser and fuel prices.

"If we get to the end of May and it hasn't rained, then we'll be starting to ask some real serious questions about where this year's headed and what the weather's doing," he said.

"We're putting it all on the line and we're just hoping that Mother Nature's going to look after us but there's a lot of things that could go wrong."

Back at Henley, Claire McLachlan spent the afternoon with her daughters, soaking in the sun.

"Making the most of the beautiful warm weather and the end of school holidays — it's like you're on holidays but you're just in the suburbs," she said.

"It's gorgeous down here today."

There was a similar run of hot weather last April, when temperatures hovered around 30C from April 10–18.