More all-time temperature records have been smashed across Australia’s interior as a climate-change-fuelled heatwave grips the continent.

Some of the hottest temperatures included the outback South Australian town of Maree, where the mercury has nudged 49.8 degrees.

Roxby Downs got to 49.6, while Woomera hit 48.5 and Leigh Creek climbed to 48.2 – all temperatures never before seen.

Maree was the hottest spot on the planet for a day, according to online world temperatures site El Dorado Weather.

Australia also claimed all of the top 15 hottest spots in the world in the 24 hours to 8am on Thursday.

Senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said the blistering heat had broken dozens of temperature records across South Australia, NSW and Victoria over the course of a week. He said this week’s heatwave was more unusual because of its longevity, which meant there was more time for heat to build up.

“This situation had a bit of a blocking pattern,” the the Bureau of Meteorology forecaster said.

“The heat has just sat over us and just kind of wobbled around the south-eastern part of the country [with] no strong cold front to come in and clear it out.”

Narramore said the records that had been broken were multigenerational, with some having stood for a century.

“They’re not just 10 or 20 years old, they’re 30, 50, 80 and in some cases 100 years old,” he said.

“A lot of the records have been similar to a heatwave back in 1939, so that’s going back a long way.”

Heatwave warnings remain active for NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia, South Australia, the ACT and Northern Territory on Friday.

Here’s today’s forecast for capital cities around Australia.

For the latest forecasts and warnings, visit our website https://t.co/4W35o8iFmh or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/2SI2xAfwuo

— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) January 29, 2026

Maree (49 degrees), Port Augusta (49), Roxby Downs (48), Moomba (47) and other east and north-east parts of SA were in for another doozy.

The mercury was also expected to get to 47 degrees in Birdsville, 46 in Mildura, 45 in Broken Hill and 43 in Wagga Wagga.

Of the capitals, Adelaide (41) and Canberra (40) will face the brunt of the heat.

Narramore said climate change was a contributing factor in the conditions.

“Obviously there is background warming so there’s more energy and more heat in the atmosphere,” he said.

“When the systems align for these extreme scenarios, they are just a little bit warmer and last that little bit longer.”

The severe to extreme conditions are forecast to ease for almost all parts of the country by Sunday, bringing an end to the so-called “heat dome”.

But more heatwaves may be in store this summer, with all of February and March yet to come.

Narramore said average temperatures in Australia were 1-1.5 degrees higher than a century ago.

The federal government’s National Climate Risk Assessment, released last September, projected that the number of severe heatwave days every year would double at 2 degrees of warming and quadruple at 3 degrees.

Heat-related deaths are projected to quintuple at 3 degrees of warming.

-AAP