Days of danger lie ahead for Queensland despite a slight easing of the catastrophic bushfire conditions that hit parts of the state on Wednesday.
Conditions across central Queensland's Capricornia region were repeatedly described as unprecedented on Wednesday, when the bushfire crisis hit its peak and forced thousands of evacuations.
The hot and extremely windy weather sparked the state's first ever "catastrophic" fire warning, and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said conditions on the ground were off the charts.
"In Victoria, we used to see a fire danger level of 100. If it was over 100, that was deemed catastrophic. Well, in that Rockhampton central region yesterday, it was 135," Ms Palaszczuk told ABC news.
Weather bureau forecaster Bruce Gunn said there were "too many records" set on Wednesday to list, but the conditions had ventured into new territory.
"In the past in Queensland, we've only found a few minutes (of catastrophic conditions) here and there, in individual events," Mr Gunn said.
"In Rockhampton we had catastrophic conditions sustained for 3.5 hours. Certainly something outside our experience."
Cairns has experienced three consecutive days above 40C, and Mackay six consecutive days above 35C - both unprecedented situations.
Mr Gunn said conditions were slightly kinder on Thursday, but remained very dangerous.
"There's still many days to go this event. It's not over. There's no significant rain on the horizon to put out these fires," he said.
Experts believe wild storms that hit NSW on Wednesday contributed to the fire situation in Queensland.
In an online essay for The Conversation website, senior weather bureau forecaster Claire Yeo explained that dynamic.
The NSW weather system pushed a mass of warm air ahead of it, driving up temperatures and "dragging" a wind change across Queensland.
More than 100 fires are still burning across the state, several of which are of concern to authorities, and that number is expected to rise again on Thursday.
