Christmas Day to be a scorcher with 110-year record predicted to tumble
Instead of leaving out the milk and cookies this Christmas Eve, you might want to direct Santa to your freezer for ice cream because Christmas morning is going to be a total sizzle in Perth.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting the 110-year-old Christmas morning record will fall on Thursday.
BoM forecaster Jonathon Howe said Christmas Day would be “scorching” with maximum temperatures forecast to reach 41 degrees.
He said it would likely be the warmest Christmas Day in Perth since 2001, as well as the warmest Christmas morning, with minimum temperatures expected to remain above 26 degrees overnight.
“This will challenge the existing record set in 1915 when Perth only hit 25.9 degrees,” he said.
“So at this stage we are forecasting a record warm morning with temperatures reaching over 40 degrees, well above Christmas Day averages.
“The temperature will be around 35 degrees at 9am and we expect temperatures to be around 40 degrees by lunch time.”
The highest night temperature ever in Perth was 29.3 degrees, recorded twice in February 1898 and February 1933.
Howe said inland suburbs will handle the heat worse than their coastal counterparts.
“We’re expecting 43 degrees from Midland and Armadale, a bit cooler if you’re on the coast where Joondalup, Cottesloe and also Fremantle are looking at around 38 or 39 degrees.
“It’s going to be a very hot day”
Heat wave conditions are moving south into the state this week, Howe said.
“We are already seeing severe heatwave conditions across parts of the North West coast and it is now spreading towards the South West of the state, including Perth,” he said.
A heatwave warning for Perth will begin on Tuesday and last until Christmas Day.
He said conditions would ease from Boxing Day, when the Mercury is expected to drop to 27 degrees before warming back into the 30s over the weekend.
“It’s classic summer conditions in Perth, but it’s going to be absolutely scorching on Christmas Day,” he said.
with 6PR
Hamish Hastie is WAtoday’s state political correspondent and the winner of five WA Media Awards, including the 2023 Beck Award for best political journalism.Connect with: excitement or email.
