Five south-east Queensland towns have sweltered through their warmest March day on record as the mercury surpassed 41 degrees during the heatwave peak Tuesday.
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It comes after the town of Gatton broke the 40-degree barrier on Monday, which was the first time a part of south-east Queensland reached 40 degrees on a March day.
On Tuesday, the Ipswich suburb of Amberley reached 41.3 degrees just after 3pm, smashing its previous record for the warmest March day, which was 38.9 degrees in 1965.
Gatton, about 90 kilometres west of Brisbane, hit 41.1 degrees, surpassing its previous warmest March day, which occurred on Monday when the mercury reached exactly 40, Weatherzone meteorologist Kim Westcott said.
Archerfield on Brisbane's southside had a maximum of 40.2 degrees on Tuesday, beating the 38.7 it recorded in March 2007.
Beaudesert in the Scenic Rim reached 40.2 degrees, which surpassed its previous warmest March day in 2007, the year records began.
The Logan suburb of Greenbank hit a top of 40.9 on Tuesday, but data has only been recorded from the area since last year.
Lockyer Valley Sports and Aquatic Centre manager Trish Reinhardt said Gatton residents had flooded into the pool to cool off and swim school numbers had surpassed 800 students.
"It’s probably been the best summer we’ve ever had. The numbers are up and consistent and it’s been hot every single day, it’s been relenting," Mrs Reinhardt said.
"It’s very sad. Everyone is struggling with it [the heatwave] at the moment and just wishing it would rain.
"You drive around Gatton, and honestly, it just looks very sad. It’s a pretty town but everything is brown and dry and it’s hard to see it looking like that.
"Everything is so burnt and brown and dusty and dry. We are all just so desperate for the rain even us pool people who normally don't wish for those kinds of things.
"You're longing for the rain and I think the heat has been unrelenting. I know some of the older people particularly have been struggling with it."
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe storm warning on Tuesday afternoon with damaging winds, heavy rainfall and flash flooding expected for the central coast and inland areas.
A 91km/h wind gust was recorded at Gayndah, 149 kilometres west of Maryborough, about 3pm.
From Wednesday onwards, cooler conditions were forecast across the south-east.
Gatton was expected to drop to 31 by the end of the week, Brisbane was predicted to go down to 29 on Saturday while the Sunshine and Gold coasts were cooling to a top of 28 on the weekend.
After a sweltering start to the week, the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and parts of Moreton Bay were battered by hailstones and strong winds on Monday evening.
Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke said the strongest wind gust recorded by monitoring stations was 83km/h at Redcliffe in Moreton Bay.
"The storms peaked in the mid-late afternoon, but all we had left in the evening was the odd bit of lightning close to the coast, but not a lot of rainfall by that point," he said.
"There were three or four particularly intense storms - one was in the Australia Zoo area, another in Tewantin and one in Gold Coast to the west of Coolangatta."
