Another round of extreme heat for Australia's south

Australia's southern capitals will scorch in some of the hottest conditions seen so far this summer as another burst of extreme heat sweeps across across the region.

The northwest Australia heat engine is continuing to generate extremely hot conditions due to a delayed monsoon, which has allowed for unusually clear skies across the region.

As a low pressure system and associated trough move across the Tasman, it will collect this heat and drag it further south than other systems have this season, causing a brief but intense band of heat across the capital cities.

While Adelaide will reach into the high 30s the next two days, Thursday will see the city push into the mid 40s (after a minimum temperature only in the high 20s), with a chance the record of 46.1 degrees could be broken.

Melbourne will reach 38 degrees on Thursday, before reaching into the early 40s on Friday before a gusty cooler change during the afternoon brings a sharp temperature drop.

On Friday, Hobart also has potential to have its hottest day of the summer with model guidance suggesting temperatures reaching into the mid 30s.

These temperatures are expected to be associated with fresh to strong and gusty northerly winds, which will bring significantly elevated fire danger to the region, which is bad news with a number of emergency warnings currently in place across the state, particularly about the Central Plateau.

Inland areas are expected continue to see prolonged extreme heat during this event, with Albury expected to see a further five days above 40 degrees through to Saturday, and Mildura four days in the low-to-mid 40s from today through to Friday.

The southern capitals can look forward to much cooler conditions over the weekend in the wake of the trough, however it will push the band of heat across NSW, leading to sizzling conditions across the Australia day weekend and into next week.

Image 1: Thunderstorm Probability - VIC/TAS