Two more “watch and act” warnings have been issued in central Queensland, as more than 100 bush fires burn across the state.
Residents in Curtis Island have been told to prepare to leave, while a “watch and act” has also been issued for the Lowmead area and Captain Creek, north of Deepwater.
Despite very hot conditions today, Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) forecaster Adam Blazak said the extreme temperatures would start to ease across the south-east from tomorrow.
“Thankfully though we will be seeing temperatures drop away,” he said.
“From the south-east tomorrow and that will gradually spread up the state throughout Wednesday, and by Thursday, most of the state should be back to reasonably average temperatures for this time of the year.
“But today is going to be another heavy day for firefighters and just people dealing with the heat.”
Storms are also forecast for later today and tomorrow across the Wide Bay and Capricornia.
Mr Blazak describes it as “rain lotto”.
“Some places are going to score very high rainfall while other places will miss out,” he said.
“They will be slow moving with possibly heavy rainfall leading to localised flash flooding — but it won’t be widespread.”
The main area of concern today is around Deepwater and Baffle Creek in Central Queensland and at North Stradbroke Island.
Emergency Services Minister Craig Crawford said there are about 500 interstate firefighters on the ground today.
“By Thursday all of those interstate crews should have rotated out and gone home. We are not expecting to need more crews beyond Thursday,” he said.
He said the fire threat had been unprecedented and it is coming to an end.
“We are nearly there — once we can get through to about Wednesday this whole heatwave will subside,” he said
