South Australia’s Christmas Day long-range forecast
WEATHER watchers are betting on a near-perfect, warm and sunny Christmas Day in Adelaide, with a fresh sea breeze around coastal areas.
WEATHER watchers are betting on a near-perfect, warm and sunny Christmas Day in Adelaide, with a fresh sea breeze around coastal areas.
Weatherzone is currently predicting a “pretty sunny 30C” for December 25 but meteorologist Kim Westcott said the forecast was “not set in stone” — just “on the high side of likely”.
“We’ll certainly have more information and more assurances about what’s going on closer to the day, especially within a week,” she said.
“That’s when we get more models starting to have more confidence, but at this stage it’s looking quite nice, if anything maybe a little bit sea-breezy around the coast.”
The Bureau of Meteorology won’t issue an official Christmas forecast until Friday but senior climatologist (SA region) Darren Ray said he thought 30C was “pretty close” to the mark.
“It does look like it will cool down early next week, then warm slightly coming into Christmas Day,” he said.
“But it may slow down a little and we may end up with a 28 to 29C Christmas Day. Average is 27C and an 85 per cent likelihood of no rain.”
Mr Ray said this week’s forecast run of hot days with maximum temperatures of 35C or higher — culminating in 42C on Sunday before a mild cool change — will be the record earliest December heatwave.
“The record for December for Adelaide is 44.2C in 1904,” he said.
“This December heat is not necessarily an indication of the rest of summer, with milder conditions expected in the south of the state through January/February.”
Meanwhile, the forecast scorcher for Saturday has led to the cancellation of the Pinery Bushfire Relief Concert.
The concert was scheduled for this Saturday at Kapunda Harness Racing Complex but will now be postponed.
“We checked with the bureau yesterday and we think probably the most responsible thing we can do in the conditions is to cancel it,” the event’s organiser, songwriter Mike Roberts, told ABC radio this morning.
He said it was not only the right call for safety but also because the heat would make it hard for CFS volunteers to attend.
“We wanted them there so we could say thanks for what they’ve done,” Roberts said.
“If they’re going to be on high alert close to their stations, we won’t have them there — so that kind of defeats the purpose.”
Roberts said the event will be rescheduled to another day when the weather is more appropriate.