Chloe van Leuven, aged 6, Campbell McTernan, 9, and Madeline McTernan, 3, cool off with an icy treat at the swimming lake.
IT'S time to stock up on icy poles, because this summer is shaping up to be a scorcher.
Naracoorte hit a top of 44.6 degrees on January 4, only slightly less than the town's record maximum temperature of 45 reached on February 14, 2004, and December 31, 2007.
Based on data from when the Bureau of Meteorology first set up a site in town in 1998, this year's figure did not officially break any records but was pretty close.
It was well above the mean maximum temperature for January which is 29.6 degrees.
Bureau of Meteorology technical officer and observer Danielle Atkinson explained that the excessive heat on that day was due to a strong build-up of heat after a period of warmer than normal temperatures experienced coming into summer.
"The average Australian maximum temperature for the last four months of 2012 was the highest on record with records going back to 1910," she said.
"And these hot conditions have been exacerbated by very dry conditions affecting much of Australia since mid-2012, as well as a delayed start to a weak Australian monsoon."
Temperatures this January had been fluctuating between the low thirties and low forties and it was only on January 9 that they dropped well below the average to 25 degrees.
Ms Atkinson said it was hard to tell if this month would surpass last year's temperatures at the same time.
"We're not even half way through yet so it's hard to tell if it will be a hotter January than last. So far it has had an average of 33.4."
In 2012 January saw an average of 30.7 degrees and a high of 42.6 on the second day of the month.
The SE is experiencing a heat wave which is widespread all across Australia and has broken several national records.
January 7 was officially the country's hottest day on record with a new national average of 40.33 degrees, hotter by a margin of 0.16 degrees over the last hottest day on December 21 in 1972.
Ms Atkinson said the hot weather looked set to continue due to its duration, extent and magnitude.
"The seasonal outlook for the SE through to March suggests there is an above average chance of exceeding the median temperature throughout this region, and as far as rainfall, we are unlikely to see a higher than average rainfall amount over the same period."
Today's temperature is expected to reach a high of 41 degrees while the rest of the week will be slightly cooler, lingering between the high twenties to mid-thirties.
