Weather: Australia’s north set for Christmas drenching, Sydney swelters through hottest night in two years
Australians are set for wild weather over the holiday period, with heatwave warnings, monsoonal moisture and a possible tropical cyclone forecast across the country.
Sydney just sweltered through its hottest night in two years, while monsoonal moisture is set to drench the north of the country over Christmas and into the new year.
The worst of the heat is behind Sydneysiders, but “it’s still going to stay pretty hot for the next couple of days”, Sky News Weather meteorologist Rob Sharpe said as the mercury climbs to 32C in Sydney on Monday.
Overnight, Sydney reached a minimum of 23.4C, the hottest night in the city in two years, while Maitland and Tocal reached the unenviable milestone of the hottest night on record for the towns with 28.2C and 28.8C respectively.
Extreme heatwave warnings are in place for the Mid North Coast and Metropolitan and severe heatwave warnings are in place for the Northern Rivers, Hunter, Northern Tablelands, Illawarra, South Coast, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands, North West Slopes and Plains and Central West Slopes and Plains.
Meanwhile, south east of Queensland will continue to experience sweltering hot weather, hitting 32C in Brisbane on Monday, with severe heatwave warnings for Darling Downs and Granite Belt and Southeast Coast.
Locations likely to be impacted include Brisbane Metropolitan Area, Beaudesert, Boonah, Caboolture, Caloundra, Esk, Goondiwindi, Ipswich, Stanthorpe and Warwick.
The conditions are expected to ease in the later part of the week.
A burst of wet weather is also set for north of Sydney, from the Hunter Region up into the tropics for the rest of the week with storms hitting Queensland on Tuesday.
In Western Australia, warning alerts are on, as a tropical cyclone is on its way with winds near the centre at 65km/h and winds gusts up to 95km/h, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
Tropical Low 03U is likely to develop into a tropical cyclone in the Indian Ocean before tracking westward to the Cocos Islands.
A second low risks developing into a tropical cyclone off WA’s northwest coast heading into the weekend.
A severe heatwave warning is also in place for the Pilbara, Gascoyne and Central West regions with temperatures expected to soar in the high 30s to mid 40s in the coming days.
While in the tropical north, a monsoon has arrived and is forecast to be active until the new year, Mr Sharpe said.
‘That should produce consistent rain showers on northern Australia, which is likely to lead to flooding ... the heaviest rain is expected between Christmas and New Year’s over northern Australia,” he said.
Sheep graziers have been warned to expect cold temperatures, showers and winds on Monday in Tasmania’s Midlands, East Coast and South East districts and Victoria’s Gippsland region.
Originally published as Weather: Australia’s north set for Christmas drenching, Sydney swelters through hottest night in two years
