Australian Weather

04 Sep 2026, 5:00AM UTC

Spring is a season of contrasts, and sometimes those dramatic weather differences occur on the same day in the same state. That will be the case this Saturday in New South Wales, when parts of the state's northwest will see temperatures pushing up into the mid-30s, while snowfalls develop later in the day in the Snowy Mountains in the state's south. The current BoM forecast for Brewarrina, a small town of around 700 people about 800 kilometres NW of Sydney, is for a Saturday maximum of 35°C. Down south at Thredbo Top Station (Australia's highest weather station at 1957 m), snowfalls should commence on Saturday afternoon, lowering to mid-mountain at around 1600 m, and perhaps even falling as low as Thredbo village (1370 m) overnight. Why the stark contrast between hot and cold? It's been at least three weeks since the last significant cold airmass pushed northwards over the southern Australian mainland. This has allowed unseasonable warmth to build up over inland regions. A high pressure system currently centred over eastern Australia will move out over the Tasman and Coral seas on Saturday. Air naturally moves from areas of high pressure to low pressure, and as the low pressure system and associated cold front cross the southeastern mainland on Saturday, northwesterly winds will strengthen as air circulates anti-clockwise around the high, dragging warm air across New South Wales. A very warm afternoon is likely across the whole northern part of NSW and much of the east – even as much cooler air pushes into southern parts of the state. Image: Mean sea level pressure and 850 hPa temperatures (altitude approximately 1500 m) over Australia at 10 am (AEST) on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Source: Weatherzone. Sydney still set for first 30-degree day of the season Weatherzone meteorologist Ben Domensino wrote on Wednesday that Sydney was likely to hit 30°C on Saturday, and that's very much still the likely scenario. The latest forecast suggests the mercury could push as high as 31°C in the city and 32°C in some outer western suburbs like Penrith and Richmond.  In contrast, Melbourne is not expected to break 20°C on Saturday with a string of much cooler maximums in the mid-teens expected after the passage of the cold front. Sydney will also be cooler next week with maximums back around 20°C for at least a few days. Will the coming snow save the ski season? Unfortunately not. Firstly, large snowfall totals are not expected. Image: An August view of the Ramshead Range near Thredbo from a mostly snowless valley which would normally be at least partially snow-covered in an average winter. Source: Weatherzone. Secondly, there is now too much exposed rock and grass at all Australian ski resorts for any fresh snowfalls to make much of a difference for more than a day or so. September snowfalls are meaningful when there's a decent remnant snowpack from winter onto which the new snow can bond. But as detailed in our story on Thursday, the Australian snowpack is at a historic low for the first week of September, even at the highest elevations of the mountains.  Having said that, Sunday should be a decent day for any weekend visitors to throw a snowball, and conditions should at least be somewhat improved on ski slopes that are still open. Please check the Weatherzone snow page for the latest forecasts, live cams and more.

04 Sep 2026, 1:16AM UTC

The UK Met Office has announced that the 2026 summer was *provisionally the nation's hottest on record, and El Niño played a significant role in the heat. We'll break down the role of El Niño in the UK's hot summer in a moment, as well as discussing the underlying contribution of the warming climate. But first, let's examine some key stats from the 2026 UK summer. In the 2026 United Kingdom summer (June, July and August): The **average mean temperature was 16.5°C. This greatly exceeded the previous record of 16.1°C, set in 2025. The five hottest UK summers have all been this century, with data for the UK as a whole going back to 1884, and some weather stations maintaining records since 1836. The UK's hottest temperature of the 2026 summer was 38.1°C at Kew Gardens on August 13. While the UK daily record of 40.3°C (July, 1992, in Coningsby, Lincolnshire) wasn't threatened this summer, a new June record of 38.0°C was set at Lingwood in Norfolk. Why was it so hot in the UK this summer? As stated, there were two main reasons behind this summer's unusual UK warmth. El Niño Image: Global mean sea level pressure anomaly in June and July 2026 (August not yet available), showing how the UK experienced above-average mean sea level pressure, which generally translates to sunny skies and warmer temperatures. Source: Climate Reanalyzer. As this year's El Niño started to look increasingly likely in May (it was formally declared by several major meteorological agencies including Australia's BoM in June), UK meteorologist Maia Clark wrote a story for Weatherzone on how El Niño typically affects European weather. Clark qualified her story by stating that the effects of El Niño in Europe are generally less pronounced than in other areas of the world (due partially to the large distance between Europe and the Pacific Ocean). But she did state that the UK and northern Europe generally experience a drier and warmer season as a result of the jet stream shifting northwards and supressing rainfall to the south of it. As Sydney-based Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard explains: "Through a series of atmospheric teleconnections [large-scale links in weather and climate between regions that are thousands of kilometres apart], El Niño creates a regional preference for high pressure to settle over western Europe. "High pressure over Europe in the summer leads to substantially more frequent and intense heatwaves." Climate change Image: It's not Bondi, but some UK residents found relief in the hot 2026 summer at Bournemouth Beach. Source: iStock/PabloMendo. The UK Met Office was unambiguous about the role of climate change in this summer's heat, stating in the very first line of a statement on September 1 that:  "The season’s mean temperature was made around 130 times more likely due to human-induced climate change." "These records are now breaking with increasing frequency, reflecting the influence of human-induced climate change on the temperatures we’re experiencing in the UK," Dr Amy Doherty of the Met Office's National Climate Information Centre said. “Particularly notable is how much we’ve exceeded the previous summer mean temperature record, set just last year." The UK also had one of its driest and sunniest summers across much of the country, although late season rain prevented records low rainfall records at many locations.  * The term "provisionally" means that meteorologists have not yet fully verified the data from all weather stations that contributed to the summer readings before making the record permanent, but it is usually just a formality to check that there were no faulty instruments. The Australian BoM often undertakes a similar process with significant weather records. ** It's also worth briefly explaining the term "average mean" as the two words are often interchangeable – so why are both used here? In weather, the mean temperature refers to the average of the highest temperature during the day and the lowest temperature at night. The average mean is the average of daily mean temperatures across the whole season.