Kalgoorlie-Boulder sets new record for hottest day in February

Wednesday was officially the hottest ever February day in Kalgoorlie-Boulder, with the mercury soaring to 46C at 2.30pm.

This beat the previous record high set on February 28, 2019, when the temperature reached a maximum of 45.3C.

And yesterday’s scorcher was close to the hottest all-time temperature in Kalgoorlie-Boulder of 46.5C on January 22, 1990.

Wednesday was the sixth day in a row where the maximum was above 40C, a spell of weather the Bureau of Meteorology on Saturday told the Kalgoorlie Miner was because of an “atmospheric traffic jam”.

Meteorologist Jess Lingard said the soaring temperatures were caused by a series of troughs developing down the west coast and passing inland almost back-to-back.

“What we have seen, really since the end of January and pretty much the entire month of February, is three consecutive troughs,” Mrs Lingard said.

“Usually it forms and moves inland ... and you get a couple of days of heat relief once it passes before the next one forms.

“Sometimes troughs get stuck on the west coast, a bit like an atmospheric traffic jam, and so at the moment there’s something further east preventing it from moving inland.

“That’s how we end up with these heatwave conditions where you get constant northerly winds, no relief overnight and just bombarded with heat day after day.”

Thursday’s forecast temperature is 33C.