Southern Australia’s unseasonably cold start to summer will soon feel like a distant memory, with several days of very hot weather set to sweep over SA, Vic and Tas just after Christmas.

The first few weeks of December have been unusually cold over large areas of southern and southeastern Australia. Amid a series late-season cold fronts, Melbourne endured its coldest first half of December since 2001 and Victoria registered its lowest summer temperature on record.

However, this run of cold weather is coming to an end and summer heat is about to hit back across the nation’s south.

After a relatively benign run into Christmas with temperatures not straying too far from average, temperatures will start to climb in SA and Vic from Christmas Day. Even hotter weather will then arrive in the days following Christmas, with this post-Christmas heat also spreading to Tas.

Image: Forecast surface air temperature at 5pm AEDT on Tuesday, December 27, 2022, according to the ECMWF-HRES model.

Adelaide is forecast to reach 25ºC on Christmas Eve, 32ºC on Christmas Day and 38ºC on Boxing Day. By December 27, some forecast models suggest that the mercury could be nudging 40ºC.

In Melbourne, maximum temperatures could jump from the mid-twenties on December 24 to 30ºC by December 26. There are indications the city could then get even warmer and reach the mid-thirties around Thursday and Wednesday next week.

Hobart could see temperatures reaching the high twenties around December 27 and 28, possibly climbing 6 to 8ºC above average for this time of year.