Rain to replace heat in Red Centre
It's been a hot start to the week in central Australia, although rain and cool relief is on the way.
A hot air mass spreading across the Red Centre is pushing temperatures close to 10 degrees above average during the first half of this week.
Alice Springs reached 38 degrees on Monday and is forecast to reach 38-40 degrees between Tuesday to Thursday. This would be the first time in five years Alice Springs has experienced four consecutive days at or above 38 degrees this early in spring. The average maximum temperature in Alice Springs during October is 31 degrees.
This week's heat is occurring as a high pressure system moves across southern Australia, allowing a hot air mass from the Kimberley region to spread further south. However, as this high moves east later in the week, a rain-bearing trough of low pressure will cross central Australia.
Rain will begin to develop over Western Australia's interior and adjacent areas of the NT and SA on Thursday, before increasing and spreading further east, across central Australia, between Friday and Sunday.
This system is expected to bring widespread falls of 10-20mm over a large area of central Australia, with some areas possibly seeing 30-40mm. The bulk of the rain will fall in the NT's Lasseter and Tanemi Districts, WA';s far eastern Interior and SA's North West Pastoral District.
The cloud and rain will also bring relief from the heat, with Uluru forecast to cool by about 10 degrees between the middle of this week and the weekend.