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Today, 7:55AM UTC
WA tourist hotspot hits 49.2°C in record January heat
Shark Bay Airport in Western Australia has eclipsed its old January heat record by almost two degrees, with a reading of 49.2°C just before 4pm (AWST). The airport serves as the gateway to the tourist spot of Monkey Mia, where bottlenose dolphins famously swim into shore. Locals in the nearby town of Denham would have realised it was going to be a scorcher when the mercury at Shark Bay Airport soared to 46.7°C at 11:58am, when it was technically still the morning. A few minutes later, the old January record of 47.3°C was sent packing. When the mercury reached 49.1°C at 2:52pm, it was the hottest temperature recorded anywhere in Australia to date in 2026. It then edged up to 49.2°C at 3:45pm. Image: Dolphins near the shore at at Monkey Mia. Source: iStock/ChristianB. Why was Shark Bay so hot on Tuesday? We outlined the reasons for the ongoing WA heatwave in our story on Monday. They included: Hot air from the interior of Australia A persistent pattern of winds circulating around a high pressure centred south of Australia (air circulates anti-clockwise around highs). These winds are drying out and heating up rapidly in the continent’s interior before pushing to the west coast. The influence of the monsoon trough The monsoon trough in the tropics has been providing ample air that is transported out over areas of high pressure, where it slowly makes its way to the surface and warms up again. That was the big picture. For Shark Bay itself, the key factor on Tuesday was winds blowing from exactly the right direction to heat that region up to record-breaking levels. Image: The ECMWF model predicted maximums for Tuesday, January 20, 2026, showed a vast area of pink shading (44°C or higher). Although Shark Bay Airport (near the town of Denham in the map above) is on a peninsula with ocean on three sides, the narrow stretch of water to its east is shallow and dotted with sandbars. So winds come off the mainland with no significant cooling effect before reaching the peninsula. The hottest conditions occur at Shark Bay occur in northeasterlies, when the super-heated air from the Pilbara region pushes straight to Shark Bay. Northeasterlies had also set in during the hottest part of the day on February 18, 2024, when Shark Bay Airport set its all-time high temperature record of 49.8°C. Meanwhile Perth’s hottest temperature to 4pm local time was 39.1°C, although the mercury had tipped over 40°C in at least two locations across the city. The city of Geraldton, in WA's Central West region, hit a blistering 47.1°C earlier at 1:18pm, which was its highest reading to 4pm.
Today, 12:41AM UTC
2025 was Australia's warmest year on record for ocean temperatures
Australia’s ocean temperatures reached a record high in 2025, with sea surface temperatures warming close to 1°C above the long-term average. The mean annual sea surface temperature in the Australian region during 2025 was 21.13°C, which is 0.93°C above the 1961-1990 average. This was Australia’s warmest annual anomaly in records dating back to 1900, beating the previous record of +0.90°C in 2024. Image: Annual sea surface temperature anomaly for the Australian region between 1900 and 2025. Source: Bureau of Meteorology. Climate drivers and atmospheric heat behind record ocean warmth Heat at the surface of the ocean is driven by warmth in the atmosphere and distributed by wind and ocean currents. Unsurprisingly, 2025 was also one of the warmest years on record for air temperatures in Australia and this abnormal atmospheric heat helped to warm the ocean’s surface in the Australian region. In addition to this near-record atmospheric warmth, abnormally warm water was also pushed towards Australia by La Niña and a negative Indian Ocean Dipole in 2025. Both climate drivers enhanced westward and eastward wind patterns respectively, which pushed warm ocean water towards Australia’s coasts, causing significant heat build-up to the northeast and northwest of the country. Record warmth in Coral Sea and Tasman Sea The build-up of ocean heat was particularly apparent to the east of Australia, with the Coral Sea and Tasman Sea both registering annual sea surface temperatures more than 1°C above the long-term averages. This was the first time in recorded history that either sea has exceeded the 1961-1990 average by more than 1°C. Image: Sea surface temperature anomaly in 2025. Source: ClimatePulse / Copernicus / ECMWF Ocean temperatures surrounding Australia’s northern tropics were also exceptionally warm early in 2025, with January marking the fourth consecutive month of record-breaking ocean warmth to the north of Australia. Australia’s ocean heat exceeds global anomaly in 2025 Global ocean temperatures were also among the highest on record in 2025 according to data published earlier this month in Advances in Atmospheric Sciences. This study found that the global mean sea surface temperature in 2025 was about 0.49°C above the 1981-2010 average, which was the third warmest year on record. Image: Global annual sea surface temperature anomalies in 2025. Source: ClimatePulse / Copernicus / ECMWF One reason the global ocean temperature didn’t match Australia’s record-breaking warmth in 2025 was because of the cooling effect of La Niña in the tropical Pacific Ocean. La Niña’s cooling influence also helped prevent air temperatures from reaching record highs in 2025, although it was still one of the world’s top three warmest years on record for surface air temperature.
19 Jan 2026, 2:29AM UTC
Heat in Western Australia could nudge 50°C
The mercury in Perth will rise towards 40°C this Tuesday, while Western Australia’s Pilbara region and some adjacent areas will hit the high 40s, with the potential for a 50-degree day. The extreme midweek heat is part of an ongoing heatwave across a vast area of Western Australia which began last week. Already, around half the state’s 14 official BoM forecast districts have endured heatwave conditions. While maximums in Perth will be hot but not extreme with expected highs of 39°C, 38°C and 37°C on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively (the January record is 44.4°C), temperatures will rise rapidly as you head north. Image: Heatwave map for Western Australia for the three days from this Monday, January 19, 2026. The BoM defines a heatwave as "unusually hot maximum and minimum temperatures over 3 days compared to the local climate and past weather.” As you can see on the map above, heatwave conditions extend from the southern Kimberley region all the way down to the South West forecast district. The Northern Interior and Southern Interior forecast districts are also affected. The red zones are areas with an extreme heatwave warning – the highest level of alert. The southern red zone is located in the Gascoyne region. The northern red zone is located near the boundaries of the Pilbara, Kimberly and Northern Interior forecast districts. What’s causing this heatwave? Over the past week or so, a relatively consistent pattern of high pressure systems centred over the Southern Ocean have enabled an easterly circulation of winds across Australia south of the tropics (air circulates anti-clockwise around highs). These winds have brought consistent moisture to much of the east coast. They have then dried and heated rapidly as they crossed the interior of the continent, pushing hot air westwards. Image: Synoptic chart for Australia on January 20, 2026. According to Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard, the persistent monsoon trough across northern Australia has also played a role in warming the atmosphere south of the tropics. "The monsoon is causing convection [rising air] in the tropics. After rainfall in tropical regions, this air is transported out over areas of high pressure, where it slowly makes its way to the surface and warms up again," Pippard explains. What would it take for the temperature to reach 50°C? Essentially, it’s a battle between land breezes and sea breezes. On January 13, 2022, the coastal WA town of Onslow (in the Pilbara) reached 50.7°C at 2:26pm, which equalled Australia’s all-time high temperature record (jointly held by Oodnadatta, SA). Winds were out of the east at the time of the heat record, which meant they were land breezes. An hour later, a westerly sea breeze kicked in, dropping the mercury to 42°C by 5pm. Then the land breeze took hold again, and the mercury surged back up to around 47°C within half an hour. Image: Predicted maximum temperatures for the Pilbara and nearby WA forecast districts on Tuesday, January 20, 2026, according to the ECMWF model. If you note the thin red line along the coast in the map above, you’ll see that areas immediately inland are forecast to get much hotter. For example, Onslow’s forecast maximum is "only" 40°C for Tuesday, while the inland mining towns of Marble Bar and Paraburdoo are both forecast to reach 47°C. Marble Bar reached 47.2°C on that scorching day of January 13, 2022, when Onslow briefly hit 50.7°C. Should the land breeze prove more robust than the sea breeze this Tuesday, there’s the chance that Onslow will get significantly hotter than its forecast maximum of 40°C. Australia has not seen a 50-degree day since 2022. The hottest recorded temperature to date this year in Australia was 49°C at Onslow on January 7. We’ll keep you posted. Image: Daily forecasts for Perth on the Weatherzone app.