Australian Weather

01 Oct 2025, 2:21AM UTC

Despite a brief cool spell early in the month which included Sydney’s wettest September day in 146 years, the harbour city has recorded its second-warmest September since records were first kept in 1858. In September 2025: Sydney’s average maximum was 23.5°C, which was around 3.3°C above the long-term average of 20.2°C. Sydney’s average minimum was 13.1°C, which was around 1.9°C above the long-term average of 11.2°C. Only September 2013 was warmer than September 2025 in Sydney for both maximums and minimums, while 2023 was slightly hotter than this year for maximums. Why was September 2025 so warm? In addition to the underlying influence of the warming climate, Sydney’s weather was also impacted by the Sudden Stratospheric Warming (SSW) over Antarctica. The SSW is a weakening of the polar vortex which in turn leads to a negative Southern Annual Mode (SAM). This tends to produce more frequent spells of warm, windy conditions on the NSW coast. Image: Forecast minimums and maximums for Sydney on the Weatherzone app. What about Sydney temperatures and rainfall in other months this year? Rainfall: Sydney has had a wet year thus far in 2025, with seven of the nine months seeing above-average rainfall. August was exceptionally wet with 389.6mm (nearly five times the long-term monthly average). It rounded out the city’s wettest winter in 18 years. Sydney exceeded its long-term annual rainfall average of 1222.6mm during the soggy 2025 August. Five of the last six years have now seen above-average rainfall in Sydney, including the record-breaking year of 2022. Temperatures: Wet weather tends to go hand-in-hand with slightly cooler-than-average days, but despite its relatively high rainfall, Sydney has seen above-average maximums in each month of 2025 to date. Sydney’s minimums have been above average in eight of the nine months so far this year. The exception was June, when overnight lows were around half a degree below average. Meanwhile fans can expect a very warm afternoon with a top of 31°C at Sydney Olympic Park ahead of the NRL Grand Final between the Melbourne Storm and the Brisbane Broncos, which kicks off at 7:30pm this Sunday evening, October 5, at Accor Stadium. While the men’s match should be played in the cool of the evening, the women’s grand final between the Roosters and the Broncos commences at 4pm, which will be close to the hottest part of the day.

30 Sep 2025, 1:52AM UTC

Rain is falling right across Tasmania this Tuesday, in a continuation of the welcome wet weather streak of recent weeks. Prior to September, Tasmania had experienced a very dry first eight months of 2025, with rainfall totals the lowest on record in some areas. Widespread light falls dampened much of Tasmania on Monday night into Tuesday morning, and while today’s rain is not expected to be particularly heavy, the radar shows moisture streaming across the state, and not just towards the typically soggy west coast. Image: Four-hour combined radar and satellite loop for Tasmania up until 10am on Tuesday, September 30, 2035. Today’s rain is falling in an unstable moist airstream ahead of a cold front and associated low pressure system. A series of fronts will whip through our southernmost state between Tuesday and Friday, with the heaviest falls in the Western and Central Plateau forecast districts. How badly is rain needed in Tasmania? The chart below shows the rainfall deciles for the first eight months of the year across Tasmania (deciles break data into ten equal groups to indicate whether totals have been average, above average or below average). Image: Tasmanian rainfall deciles from January to August, 2025. Source: BoM. As you can see above, most of the state saw "very much below average" rainfall or worse from January to August 2025. Only a patch of the northeast has seen average rainfall, thanks largely to easterly rainfall events in June and July. But it’s worth noting that this is the driest part of the state, so we are not talking about huge totals. By contrast, Tasmania's west typically receives huge annual rainfall totals. Indeed Mount Read – a 1123m peak with a weather station on Tasmania's West Coast Range – is the wettest place in Australia beyond the tropics. Mount Read saw approximately 1150mm in the four months from May through August, yet those rainfall totals were still significantly below average in each of those months. Image: Mount Read monthly rainfall totals over the last 12 months. Mount Read’s run of eight below-average rainfall months to start the year was broken this September, with rain on every single day of the month except September 5, and a total of 543.6mm which was well over the 379mm monthly average. As for Hobart, the state capital beat its monthly rainfall average for just the third time this year in September, but only just, with 54.2mm compared to the average of 52.9mm. Image: Forecast rainfall for the next 24 hours in Hobart on the Weatherzone app. Hobart’s running total for 2025 is still well down on average, with 324.6mm in the gauge so far compared to the long-term January to September average of 436.9mm. That’s why today’s rain is welcome, even though it’s relatively light.