Australian Weather

Today, 12:17AM UTC

Steady rain is soaking parched parts of South Australia this Tuesday, with moisture making its way towards Victoria as a complex low pressure system crosses the south of the continent ahead of a cold front. The loop below shows a rainband tracking in a southeasterly direction across SA on Tuesday morning, generating showers as far north as SA’s North West Pastoral forecast, as far east as the Riverland and Murraylands, and as far south as Adelaide. The Eyre and Yorke peninsulas are also receiving welcome rainfall, while the state’s wettest corner (the southeast) can expect rainfall from this afternoon onwards. Image: Three-hour combined satellite and rainfall loop to 9:30am (ACST) on Tuesday, October 21, 2025. Storms are accompanying the rain at times, as can be seen on the loop above, where pink blobs correspond to areas of lightning activity. Potentially damaging winds are also likely at times, and numerous wind warnings are in place for coastal parts of SA and Vic for Tuesday and Wednesday – including a severe weather warning issued at 10:39am (ACST) this Tuesday for damaging, locally destructive winds across the southeast. This rain will be very welcome in both South Australia and in Victoria. Rainfall totals of around 10-15mm were recorded at multiple locations in SA's Mount Lofty Ranges in the 24 hours to 9am Tuesday, and while these weren’t huge totals, they were the heaviest since winter in what has been a relatively dry spring to date. Adelaide itself has also had a dry time of late. After the SA capital saw its wettest July in 27 years, the city has endured three months with only around half its average rainfall. Image: Wind and rain data for Adelaide on Tuesday evening into Wednesday on the Weatherzone app. While a moderate total of 4mm was recorded overnight, that was the first rain in two weeks and the good news is that moisture continues to stream Adelaide's way. A further 3mm was received between 9am and 11am local time, with a healthy total in the 10-20mm range forecast for today. Melbourne is another southern capital that has missed out on much of its usual spring rainfall to date, with below-average rainfall totals for each month from July onwards, including the running total for this month as of October 21. Unfortunately, only relatively light totals of up to 5mm are expected today or tomorrow for Melbourne but western Victoria should see some handy falls. For example, Horsham in the Wimmera has seen only about a third of its average rainfall in September and the first three weeks of October, but it should receive 5-10mm from the current system. Some locations could see much heavier falls in downpours during thunderstorms.

20 Oct 2025, 7:11AM UTC

Temperatures have soared to previously unrecorded levels for October in numerous locations in outback South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland. While we can’t report the official maximums (as they are calculated on the 24-hour period from 9am to 9am), Monday’s record-breaking readings and notable temperatures included: Queensland Birdsville reached 44.9°C, the hottest temperature recorded thus far in Queensland this Monday, and just 0.2°C shy of the statewide record for October. The mercury soared to 44.2°C at Ballera in the Channel Country. This broke the old October record of 42.9°C at this weather station situated near a gas field which has been operational since 1998. Thargomindah, also in the Channel Country in Queensland’s far southwest, reched 43.1°C. This broke the record at Thargomindah Airport (data since 1999) and equalled the old Thargomindah Post Office site record (data since 1879). Image: Turn left for extreme October heat. Source: iStock/TonyFeder. South Australia Moomba Airport was SA’s hottest place up until 5pm (ACST) with a reading of 44.1°C recorded earlier in the afternoon. That beat the old October record of 43.5°C (data since 1995) which was also the record at the old town site (data since 1972). Oodnadatta hit 44°C just after 3:30pm. The tiny town of 100 residents holds SA’s October record of 45.4°C and jointly holds Australia’s heat record (any month) of 50.7°C. New South Wales Tibooburra in the state’s far northwest corner had the state's equal-highest temperature of 42.6°C to 5pm. This beat the old October record of 42.4°C at the post office site (data back to 1886) and also beat the monthly record of 42.1°C at the airport site (data since 1997). White Cliffs, about 250 km southeast of Tibooburra, reached 42.3°C. That comfortably exceeded the old record of 41.7°C (data since 1901). Image: Predicted maximums on Monday, October 20, 2025 across the areas covered in this story and slightly further afield, according to the ECMWF model. The pool of unseasonably warm air in Australia’s interior will begin to dissipate in South Australia on Tuesday, however the SW corner of Queensland and the NW corner of New South Wales can expect another scorcher on Tuesday. Tuesday’s temperatures at some locations could even potentially exceed Monday’s, which obviously means that more records could tumble.  The heat will push all the way to the east coast by midweek, with Sydney in potentially record-breaking October heat territory on Wednesday with a forecast maximum of 38°C in the city and 39°C in the west.  Brisbane should reach 35°C on Thursday with the mercury rising a few degrees higher west of the city in places like Ipswich.