The temperature climbed to 40.5C on Monday October 4 in Tindall for the first time since November 2020.

BOM Meteorologist Sally Cutter said last week that Katherine's maximum temperatures between 39 and 41 for last week met the technical definition of a heatwave.

The minimum temperatures for the region were between 25C and 26C.

"What goes into a heatwave is not just the fact that it's hot during the day, but also hot at night," Ms Cutter said.

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She said 37.8C was the average maximum for October with 23.9C the average minimum.

"It's just enough above average over the three days period that it's triggering the threshold for the heatwave."

Humidity was also relatively high, sitting around the 50 per cent mark.

However, this coming week is set to see a small amount of relief with lower temperatures, showers and storms predicted.

Maximum temperatures of 36C are predicted for Thursday and Friday before climbing to 38C on Saturday.

There is an 18 per cent chance of rain on Thursday which will decrease to 60 per cent on Thursday and 40 per cent on the weekend.

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