Southwest WA locals are enduring a bitterly cold Thursday in the frigid southwesterly airstream behind a cold front that passed through earlier this morning.

While southeastern Australia swelters by spring standards in yet another burst of widespread warmth after a brief cold spell early this week, Perth locals are shivering.

• At 12:30pm local time, Perth was just 11°C
• At 12:30pm local time, Canberra was 21.4°C.
• At 12:30pm local time, Hobart was 20.6°C

So that's close enough to a 10-degree difference between Perth and the two Australian capital cities which most people associate with chilly weather at this time of year.

Indeed, Perth has been significantly colder than all other Australian capital cities since 9am this Thursday.

Rain has contributed to the cool temps in Perth and across the southwest. The front delivered 14 mm of rain to Perth in the 24 hours to 9 am Thursday, with a few more millimetres afterwards as brief but relatively heavy showers scooted through the South West Land Division.

Despite plenty of rain of late, today's damp weather would not have been unwelcome.

After Perth's driest seven months on record from October 2023 through to April 2024, Perth enjoyed near-average rainfall in May and June, and better-than-average rainfall in July and August.

September is on average the fifth-wettest month of the year, and with the dry months looming ahead, every drop still counts, so few locals would have argued with the overnight soaking.

A drying trend will set in after showers clear later on Friday, with no sign of rain till the end of next week at the earliest.

The mercury will also be relatively slow to rise as there's no shortage of cold air behind the front – a fact emphasised by today's cold early afternoon temps, and revealed by the tell-tale field of speckled cloud (which indicates cold air) over the southwest.