With only a few days remaining in August, it's near certain that all eight capital cities will register average maximum and minimum temperatures which are well above the long-term average.

In short, it has been a warm one by day and by night, and not just in one portion of the country while regions of equal size have been comparatively cool, but right across vast swathes of Australia.

Next week's monthly and seasonal summaries will reveal more, but as things stand now on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 27, the running August anomalies for the eight capital cities are:

Maximums

• Perth + 0.8°C
• Darwin + 1.6°C
• Brisbane* +2.3°C
• Sydney + 2.4°C
• Hobart + 2.6°C
• Adelaide + 2.9°C
• Melbourne + 3.2°C 
• Canberra* + 3.5°C

Image: So much for the frigid national capital. Canberra has had the highest max temp anomaly of all the cpaitals in August 2024 to date. Source: iStock.

Minimums

• Canberra +0.6°C
• Darwin +1.2°C
• Melbourne +2.1°C
• Adelaide +2.4°C
• Sydney +2.4°C
• Perth +3.0°C
• Hobart +3.0°C
• Brisbane +3.1°C

In terms of rainfall, only Perth and Brisbane have been significantly wetter than usual in August 2024 to date – and almost all of Brisbane’s running total of 71.2 mm of rain came in a four-day soggy spell.

Why so warm?

While the background warming influence of climate change always tends to play a part in such figures, the main direct driver of August's warm temperatures has been dominant high pressure systems centred over mainland Australia.

The position of these highs has been relatively far north for winter and has kept the majority of rain-bearing cold fronts south of most parts of the continent.

The BoM's latest climate outlook states that warmer than average days and nights are very likely across most of Australia in the coming spring.

* Note that the Brisbane and Canberra anomalies were calculated from the old sites because averages require a 30-year data set and the new weather stations have been located at their current location for less than 30 years.