FILE – A beachcomber in Sydney, Australia, was treated to a late-night show. A neon blue wave broke under the ghostly late December moon. The glow is bioluminescence.

BIRDSVILLE, Australia — According to the calendar, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but in much of Australia it feels more like summer. Just like in the Northern Hemisphere, a record-breaking heatwave has hit much of the continent.

The town of Birdsville reached 39.7 degrees Celsius (103 degrees Fahrenheit) on Friday, setting not only a daily or monthly heat record for the town, but also the August heat record for the entire state of Queensland, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Average high temperatures for late August are above 70 degrees.

And the city was in danger of breaking that record again on Saturday.

Several other Queensland towns set all-time records in August, including Winton, Thargomindah and Longreach, all of which reached 37.7 degrees Celsius (100 degrees Fahrenheit).

But the scorching heat spread across several states. In the interior of the Northern Territory, South Australia and even New South Wales, temperatures reached -4°C and more above average. In Sydney, highs of 31°C were reached on Friday.

Much of inland Australia has been experiencing hot winter temperatures for days. The new records at the end of this week come just days after several cities set winter temperature records last Saturday. In Oonnadatta in South Australia, temperatures reached 39 degrees Celsius.