Christmas Day 2022 weather: Gold Coast on course for beautiful day
Christmas weather on the Gold Coast has been more naughty than nice in recent years, but this year could be different. Check out the latest forecast.
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Gold Coasters haunted by the ghosts of a gloomy Christmas past are in for a pleasant surprise on Sunday, with forecasters hopeful of perfect summer weather.
The La Nina weather pattern was the Grinch that stole Christmas last year, dumping 49.8mm of rain on December 25, 2021.
But although the ultra-wet weather system remains active, Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Livio Regano said the signs were looking good for a sunnier Christmas Day this year.
“From what we can tell this coming week will be very pleasant overall,” Mr Regano said.
“It’s quite cool, quite breezy, but there’s very little rain, just little slight coastal fringe showers if anything.
“As we come into the weekend it will be slowly warming up and the chance of showers will increase, but not that much.”
Average December temperatures on the Gold Coast range between 20 and 28 degrees – almost precisely what’s forecast for Sunday.
“The way things are looking, Christmas Day will be about as close to average in every way possible that you could imagine,” Mr Regano said.
“Temperatures are pretty much bang on the December average.
“We’re rating a 30 per cent chance of some rain, which means it’s about twice as much chance of it not raining as there is of it raining. That’s pretty typical for a day in December where about one in every three days will rain.”
Mr Regano said Gold Coasters should enjoy the fine weather while it lasts, warning that the La Nina system remained active and was not done with the city yet.
“We quickly forget how incredibly wet it was just a few weeks ago and right through Spring, and we’ve got another pulse of the Madden-Julian Oscillation reaching its peak over Christmas and New Year when the monsoon comes down,” he said.
“So there’s every chance it will get back to its naughty self, back to the wet periods that we were experiencing earlier on.
“My advice would be enjoy this delicious weather while you can. Once it goes beyond that period of forecastability from Christmas into the New Year we just don’t know, but odds are that it’s going to get wet again.
“The dice is still quite heavily loaded in favour of higher than normal rainfall for the rest of summer.”
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