Australian Weather

15 Dec 2025, 2:44AM UTC

Summer snow settled on Tasmania’s Central Highlands on Sunday as a wintry air mass spread over the state in the wake of a cold front. But these cool winds are also causing High fire danger ratings in the state’s east, where a number of fires continue to burn. Sunday’s summer snow Cold air spread over Tasmania on Sunday causing temperatures to plummet, with Hobart’s temperature hovering around 10°C at lunchtime as the top of Mount Wellington failed to reach 4°C. The state’s Central Highlands became cold enough for snow to settle in some of the usual cold spots, including Miena at the southern end of Great Lake. Image: Snow on the ground in Miena on Monday, December 15, 2025. Source: @thisbellaidea / Instagram. The lingering cold air also caused some teeth-chattering minimum temperatures on Monday morning, with widespread frost covering parts of the state’s inland. The state’s lowest temperature was -2.6°C at kunanyi / Mount Wellington, while Liawenee also dropped to -0.9°C. Image: Frost at Miena on Monday, December 15, 2025. Source: @thisbellaidea / Instagram. In addition to the cold temperatures, powerful winds have been buffeting Tas over the last couple of days. Kunanyi / Mount Wellington registered a wind gust of 122 km/h on Sunday, while the more exposed Maatsuyker Island clocked a gust of 144 km/h. Fires lingering Despite the notable drop in temperatures on Sunday, fire danger ratings remain in the High category over much of eastern Tasmania on Monday. This is because the winds are dry on the eastern side of the state due to the Central Highlands acting like a shield from the rain. Numerous fires have been burning in eastern and northern Tasmania on Monday, although as of 1pm AEDT, none were at Watch and Act or Emergency Warning level, but a few Advice warnings were in place. Image: Fire danger ratings in Tasmania on Monday, December 15, 2025. Source: Weatherzone. One of the fires under an Advice from the Tasmania Fire Service (TFS) on Monday was the Dolphin Sands fire, which destroyed 19 homes last week. The TFS is advising residents to return with caution and states that “although there is no immediate danger, residents need to monitor conditions and be alert for any changes.” Wind and fire danger will ease over Tasmania on Tuesday as a high pressure system drifts across southeastern Australia.

14 Dec 2025, 2:18AM UTC

Perth is set for a very hot and stormy Sunday as a trough near the west coast deepens and moves closer to the city. With meaningful rainfall scarce since October this system finally offers a small but welcome chance of relief.  The morning opened with gusty easterly winds across the higher terrain east of Perth, with winds locally strengthened by descending flow from the Darling Scarp. This is a classic downslope wind effect, where air accelerates as it descends the escarpment, warming and strengthening as it moves downhill. Gusts peaked near 76 km/h at Gooseberry Hill early this morning, while Perth Airport recorded a 67 km/h gust. These persistent easterlies also delivered a notably warm start, with temperatures already reaching 22.3°C near dawn.  Those easterly winds will continue through much of the day, keeping the Fremantle Doctor at bay, and setting the stage for extreme heat. Temperatures are expected to climb towards 39°C, with a chance of Perth touching 40°C if cloud and storms hold off long enough. Whether the city reaches those extremes will largely depend on how quickly showers and thunderstorms develop. Image: Forecast maximum temperatures for the Perth area for Sunday 14th December (Acc-C model). As the trough deepens further through the day, gains moisture and interacts with an upper-level disturbance (a feature higher in the atmosphere that enhances rising air), conditions will become favourable for severe thunderstorms across parts of western WA. For the Perth metropolitan area, severe storms are possible from mid-afternoon into the early to mid-evening, with damaging wind gusts the main threat. Rainfall totals may not be impressive — generally 5–10 mm, with isolated falls up to 15 mm — but after meaningful rainfall has been scarce since October (the last day exceeding 10 mm being 21st October), including virtually no rain so far this December, this would be enough to deliver a small but welcome break in the dry spell.  Image: 24-hour rainfall for Sunday 14th according to the ECMWF model. Looking ahead, northeasterly winds will linger into Monday morning, bringing another warm start with minimum temperatures around 23°C. Temperatures will rise quickly into the mid 30s by late morning and early afternoon before the trough shifts east and a sea breeze develops. That sea breeze should take the edge off the heat compared with Sunday, although it will still be hot. Thunderstorms remain a chance on Monday, most likely east of Perth or over the hills rather than the city itself.