Australian Weather

Today, 1:09AM UTC

Parts of southwestern Australia endured their coldest day in 3-6 years on Monday following the passage of a cold front, with another burst of cold air on the way this Thursday. A cold front crossed southwestern WA on Sunday evening and Monday morning, bringing widespread rainfall of 20 to 40 mm across the south and west of the South West Land Division. The cold front quickly cleared east on Monday, leaving behind a cold airmass and clear early morning skies. Image: 850 hPa temperatures (approximately 1.5 km up in the atmosphere) on the afternoon of Monday, July 21, 2025. A chilly morning was felt across the southwest, with the temperatures dropping to 3.2°C at Perth, about 5 degrees below the average July minimum temperature. It was also the coldest morning in about 2 years for a number of weather stations, including Rottnest Is (7.8°C), Gooseberry Hill (4.7°C), Bunbury (1.8°C), Wagerup (2.8°C), and about 12 other locations. Daytime temperatures did not warm up much either, with cold southwesterly winds blowing cloud over land from the Indian Ocean. Perth climbed to a maximum temperature of 15.2°C, tying for the coldest day of the year to date. The average maximum temperature for this time of year is 18.5°C for Perth. Elsewhere across the region saw temperatures limited to the low-teens, including the coldest day in: 6 years at Red Rocks Point (13.9°C) 3 years at Garden Island (13.5°C) About 2 years across over 20 weather stations, including Geraldton Ap (15.9°C), Esperance (13.1°C), Rottnest Island (13.9) and Mandurah (13.4°C). Image: Maximum temperatures across southwest WA limited to the low-to-mid teens on Monday, July 21, 2025. Another burst of cold coming on Thursday A pair of milder days will follow with westerly winds bringing showers and rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, late on Wednesday and into Thursday, another cold front will cross into the region, bringing another burst of cold temperatures. Cold air will surge north from deep in the Southern Ocean, more than 2000 km to the south, bringing this burst of cold. Image: 850 hPa temperatures on the afternoon of Thursday, July 24, 2025. Temperatures will be limited to the low-to-mid teens again on Thursday, with Perth forecast to only reach a maximum of 14°C — which could end up being the coldest day so far this year. If the mercury remains below 14.5°C, it’ll be Perth’s coldest day since August 2023. Image: Daily forecast maximum and minimum temperatures for Perth over the coming 6 days, as seen in the daily summary on the Weatherzone app. Cloud cover will clear later on Thursday, leading to another round of cold mornings on Friday and Saturday, with the mercury forecast to drop down to about 3°C in Perth. The cold air will also reach into northern WA, with broad parts of the state’s interior and southwest experiencing minimum temperatures in the low-to-mid single digits. Image: Forecast minimum temperatures on Saturday, July 26, 2025. Milder temperatures are expected on Sunday, extending into early next week, for southwestern WA.  

21 Jul 2025, 1:38AM UTC

A series of strong cold fronts will cause widespread rain across Australia this week, along with periods of damaging winds, thunderstorms and snow in multiple states and territories. Two cold fronts and associated low pressure systems will sweep across Australia from west to east this week. The first system will cross the country between Monday and Wednesday, and the second will move through between Wednesday and Sunday. Both systems will be strong enough to cause severe weather in multiple states and territories this week. The combination of the two systems will also result in widespread rain across southern, central and eastern Australia, including useful falls in drought-affected areas. First system of the week The satellite image below shows the first cold front of the week passing over WA on Monday morning, where it is causing a cold, wet and windy start to the week. Perth could struggle to reach 15°C on Monday, which would make it the city’s coldest day so far this year. Image: Visible true colour satellite image captured on Monday morning. This system will move further east in the next couple of days, hitting SA on Monday and then crossing southeastern Australia on Tuesday. Blustery winds, rain and cold air will spread across the southern half of Australia between Monday and Wednesday with the passage of this cold front and an associated low pressure system. This will include damaging winds in several states, with severe weather warnings already in place for parts of SA and Vic as of 10:30am AEST on Monday. Warnings may also be issued in NSW and Tas over the next couple of days. Image: Forecast wind gusts at 1:00pm AEST on Monday, July 21, 2025. This cold front will also interact with a low pressure trough over eastern Australia to cause rain and thunderstorms over a broad area of NSW and Qld on Tuesday and Wednesday. Second system this week The second cold front of the week will reach southwestern Australia on Wednesday before crossing WA on Thursday, SA and central Australia on Friday and southeastern and eastern Australia on the weekend. This front is expected to spawn a large low pressure system that will draw tropical moisture across Australia. This setup has the potential to generate a massive northwest cloudband that will soak part of every state and territory in the second half of this week. Image: Modelled precipitable water and mean sea level pressure over Australia on Friday afternoon, showing a low pressure system directing a large stream of tropical moisture across eastern and southeastern Australia. In addition to rain, this front and low will also cause further blustery and potentially damaging winds across parts of southern Australia later this week. It should also get cold enough for more snow in the Alps and there’s even a chance of some snow flurries in the south of WA on Thursday. Big week of rain for Australia The combined influence of this week’s cold fronts and low pressure systems will deliver a decent amount of rain to part of every state and territory in Australia between now and the weekend. Due to the eastward movement of these weather systems, the bulk of this rain will fall on and west of the Great Dividing Range. This means that the Murray-Darling Basin and many thirsty agricultural areas of SA, Tas, Vic and WA will also see a good drop of rain in the next seven days. The map below shows how much rain is expected to fall across Australia this week. Image: Forecast accumulated rain this week, according to the ECMWF-HRES model. Some of this week’s rain will soak areas that have experienced record-breaking rainfall deficiencies over the past 1.5 years, as shown on the map below. While this won’t be enough to eradicate these long-term rain deficits, it will be welcome moisture in the ground. Image: Rainfall deficiencies for the 17-month period ending in June 2025. Source: Bureau of Meteorology The dynamic weather patterns affecting Australia this week will cause dangerous conditions in multiple states. Check the latest forecasts and weather warnings in your area before heading out.