Hobart residents sweated through the city’s hottest night in 112 years as a severe heatwave continues to affect large parts of south-east Australia.
Extreme heat is forecast to continue across South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania and southern New South Wales for several days, the Bureau of Meteorology said on Sunday after record temperatures caused the cancellation of long weekend events.
Saturday was the hottest March day on record for Edithburgh on South Australia’s Yorke peninsula (41.7C) and Kanagulk (40.6C) in western Victoria.
The overnight low temperature in Hobart was 24.3C – the warmest night in the Tasmanian capital since 1912, according to the bureau’s records.
Sarah Scully, a senior meteorologist at the bureau, said hot nights were “really unusual” for Hobart, where the mean minimum overnight temperature for March is 11C. She said maximum temperatures were about 10 to 16 degrees above the March average across the heatwave-affected areas.
“It was very hot last night,” Scully said.
“There’s been observed or forecast greater than 37C days for Melbourne for the entire long weekend. [The extreme heat] started [on Saturday] and is expected to continue right through the early hours of Tuesday morning.”
Related: Australia sweats through third-hottest summer on record with hot and dry autumn predicted
Temperatures should ease when a southerly change hits Melbourne and southern Victoria on Tuesday, but the state’s north and parts of South Australia will continue to swelter until Thursday when a “blocking” high-pressure system moves away.
Scully said the blocking high was causing northerly winds and dragging hot air over Australia’s south-east.
“It is unusual to have such intense heatwaves at this time of year, but it’s not unprecedented,” Scully said.
“Autumn is typically the transition season from the heat to the cooler months, so to have heatwaves during the early parts of Autumn [isn’t] unusual.”
Event organisers across south-eastern Australia were sweating over safety concerns and cancellations as the heatwave settled in.
The conditions prompted the Pitch music and arts festival to advise patrons to leave by Saturday morning and warn those yet to arrive to stay away.
But later on Saturday organisers posted on Instagram: “Programming will commence at 6pm today (Saturday) and will continue as scheduled for the remainder of the event.”
“We are diligently following the guidance of relevant authorities to prioritise the safety of our community and have a full team of emergency services including medical, police and on site fire response who are on call throughout the event,” the organisers said.
Related: Weather tracker: Much of southern Australia on heatwave alert
Melbourne’s Moomba parade was cancelled on Saturday due to concerns for performers and spectators as temperatures soared in Victoria, but the infamous Birdman rally was to go ahead on Sunday.
“This is a very difficult decision, particularly in Moomba’s 70th year, but we must prioritise people’s health in these extreme conditions,” Melbourne’s lord mayor, Sally Capp, said in a statement.
“Parade participants are required to spend several hours outdoors in hot, heavy costumes – putting them at greater risk.”
While the south-east sweltered, people at the opposite end of the country were being confronted by different weather extremes.
In Western Australia, the Eucla, Goldfields and southern interior regions were warned about the possibility of flash flooding and intense rainfall from a rain system that was likely to remain almost stationary for days.
– Additional reporting by Australian Associated Press
