Australia weather: after hottest spring on record, a very warm and humid start to summer forecast

Australia recorded its hottest spring on record with mean temperatures more than 2C above the long-term average.

It comes as large parts of the country awaited maximum temperatures of between 4C and 8C above average on the second day of summer, with heat and humidity set to continue throughout the week.

“We’re looking at multiple pulses of very warm weather across southern and eastern Australia, including New South Wales,” the Bureau of Meteorology senior forecaster Angus Hines said.

“We’ve got the first of those today. We’ve got widespread temperatures several degrees above the December average through South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and the ACT.”

In its spring summary, the bureau said the mean national temperature for the season was 2.08C above the 1961-1990 average of 22.5C. The previous highest anomaly was 2.03C above average in the spring of 2020.

The national minimum temperature was 2.05C above average, also the warmest on record.

Among the individual states, Queensland had its warmest spring for mean and minimum temperatures, while the state’s average maximum temperature was the second highest on record.

Western Australia recorded its warmest spring for average minimum temperatures.

Nationally, spring rainfall was 28% above average, with both September and November wetter than average months. October was drier than average.

The bureau said spring rainfall was above average to very much above average – in the wettest 10% of all springs since 1900 – for most of Western Australia and the Northern Territory, and for parts of Queensland, NSW and South Australia.

The very warm start to summer, which brought temperatures into the 30s for parts of southern and eastern Australia on Monday, will take a brief dip on Tuesday with the arrival of a band of rain and thunderstorms from central Australia.

Hines said rainfall would move into Victoria, most of NSW, parts of northern Tasmania and southern and inland Queensland, including some areas of the east that received extensive rainfall over the weekend.

But he said the cooler conditions would not last and temperatures would heat up again in South Australia on Wednesday, followed by Victoria and NSW on Thursday.

“We also have very high humidity values across eastern Australia,” Hines said.

“It’s not just warm – it’s warm and sticky, so it can feel muggy and oppressive.”