Last week’s extreme heatwave across south and south-east Australia, was both uncomfortable and operationally dangerous.
With consecutive days of temperatures well above seasonal norms, high overnight minimums offering little relief, and heat persisting across large geographic areas, rail networks were operating under sustained thermal stress. For asset managers and OH&S leaders, this type of event is no longer an outlier. It is a growing, foreseeable risk that requires active management.
At Early Warning Network (EWN), we issued a high volume of Red and Black heat alerts throughout the event to rail operators, our highest severity thresholds, signalling conditions capable of triggering internal safety and operational response plans across rail organisations.
Heat impacts rail systems in ways that are both immediate and cumulative. Unlike short-lived storm events, heatwaves apply continuous pressure on infrastructure and people.
Rail steel expands as temperatures rise. Prolonged and extreme heat increases the likelihood of:
South Australia’s recent heatwave created the exact conditions where rail neutral temperatures are challenged, particularly on exposed sections of track, freight corridors, and regional lines.
From drivers and network controllers to maintenance crews and emergency responders, rail workers are exposed to heat stress risks, including:
For OH&S managers, extreme heat is a critical safety hazard that must be actively monitored and controlled.
One of the key challenges for rail organisations is moving from generic weather forecasts to decision-ready intelligence.
Knowing it will be hot is not enough.
Asset and safety teams need to understand:
This is where tailored weather intelligence becomes essential.
During last week’s event, EWN delivered advanced, rail-specific heat intelligence through a combination of forecasting, real-time monitoring, and automated alerting.
Our forecasts are beyond a generic state-wide or city outlook. They are:
This allowed rail operators to anticipate dangerous heat days in advance and activate internal processes early.
See more about weather forecasting
Throughout the heatwave, EWN issued a significant number of Red and Black heat alerts - the highest severity levels.
These alerts indicate:
For many rail organisations, these alerts automatically trigger internal protocols such as:
Read more about severe weather alerting
EWN’s AWARE platform provides rail operators with real-time visibility of evolving heat conditions across their network.
Through AWARE, asset and OH&S managers can:
This real-time insight is critical during prolonged heatwaves, where risk escalates over days, not hours.
Image: BoM image showing variation in the maximum temperatures last week were above or below average
The South Australian heatwave is part of a broader trend. Climate science continues to show that extreme heat events are becoming more frequent, more intense and longer lasting.
For rail networks, resilience now depends on the ability to:
Extreme heat is a network, asset, and workforce risk that requires rail-specific intelligence. That is why EWN has developed RailAWARE, a solution purpose-built for the rail sector.
RailAWARE combines:
Rather than reacting to heat once it is already impacting services or safety, RailAWARE enables rail organisations to anticipate risk, activate controls early, and maintain situational awareness throughout prolonged heat events.
As Australia’s climate continues to warm, having a rail-specific heat intelligence capability is becoming essential to protecting people, infrastructure, and network performance.