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Troughs over the tropics and across Qld and northeast NSW will bring storms and rain. Westerly winds between fronts brings showers to western Tas. A high pressure ridge extends over southern WA, SA and Vic. A trough forming over WA's west brings hot winds to the west.
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Today, 2:14AM UTC
Australia's 'longest day' of the year is here
The Southern Hemisphere’s summer solstice has arrived, making Australia’s longest day of the year based on the time between sunrise and sunset. For those living south of the equator, the summer solstice marks the moment the South Pole reaches its furthest tilt towards the sun. This orientation causes the year's maximum daylength across the Southern Hemisphere on the date of the solstice. Image: Difference in the amount of reflected solar radiation between the Southern Hemisphere’s summer solstice (top) and winter solstice (bottom), showing the Southern Hemisphere’s increased exposure to the sun on the date of the summer solstice. Source: NASA This year’s summer solstice occurred at 3:03pm UTC on December 21, which was 02:03am AEDT on December 22 and 11:03pm AWST on December 21. This time difference means WA had its longest day on Sunday, December 21, while the rest of Australia has its longest day on Monday, December 22. While the amount of time between sunrise and sunset reaches a peak for all of Australia on the date of the summer solstice, daylength increases the further south you are in the country. Hobart will see close to 15 hours and 22 minutes between sunrise and sunset on December 22, while Darwin’s day will only be 12 hours and 52 minutes, a difference of 2.5 hours. The difference is even greater between Thursday Island in far northern Queensland and Recherche in southern Tasmania, which have 2 hours and 41 minutes difference in their day lengths. Image: Summer solstice sunrise and sunset times on the Weatherzone app for Recherche, Tas. Image: Summer solstice sunrise and sunset times on the Weatherzone app for Thursday Island, Qld. Following the summer solstice, days will start to become shorter, and nights will get longer across Australia. This trend will continue for the next six months until the date of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice in late June 2026.
21 Dec 2025, 1:55AM UTC
Northern NSW swelters in the hottest night in up to seven years
Large swathes of northwest and central western NSW failed to drop below 25 degrees overnight, as a slow moving trough, combined with high humidity and cloud cover continues to drive extreme heat over much of northern NSW, leading to the hottest night in years for some areas. Gunnedah in the state’s Northwest Slopes and Plains district only cooled to 26.9°C overnight, which is the hottest night in just under 7 years. In addition, Murrurundi in the Upper Hunter only dropped to 24.8°C, the hottest night in almost 6 years. A number of other areas recorded their hottest night in close to 2 years including: Walgett (29.1°C) Narrabri (28.6°C) Coonamble (28.2°C) Dubbo (25.8°C) Parkes (23.9°C) Mudgee (21.9°C) Armidale (19.4°C) Image: Minimum temperatures for Sunday 21st forecasted by the ECMWF Saturday 12Z run Even most of Sydney stayed well above 20°C overnight, with temperatures only dropping to 23.6°C for the Observatory Hill site (however, the official minimum will be 23.3°C recorded just before 10am yesterday), 23.4°C at Sydney Olympic Park and 22.9°C at Penrith. Olympic Park and Penrith also had their hottest night in nearly 2 years. The reason it was stiflingly hot last night is the presence of a very hot air mass ahead of a slow moving trough, making yesterday extremely hot. Persistent northerly component winds also worked alongside increased cloud cover to prevent significant overnight cooling, allowing it to remain above 30 degrees well past midnight for many places, and above 25 degrees all night for many locations. Image: Forecast heatwave intensity for NSW in the 3-day period to Monday 22nd This is part of the ongoing severe heatwave currently affecting most of northern and eastern NSW, with severe to extreme heatwave conditions expected to continue until Monday. Temperatures are expected to reach the high 30s to low 40s on Sunday, following up on a similarly hot Saturday, with another very warm night expected to follow tonight. Increasing showers and storms during Monday will precede the arrival of cooling southerly component winds as the trough crosses overnight Sunday and into Monday, bringing relief for the scorched and heat-weary residents of northern and central NSW.
19 Dec 2025, 9:53PM UTC
Burst of severe weather over southeast on Sunday
A low pressure system will rapidly amplify over Victoria and nearby regions on Sunday, bringing heavy rain, strong winds and storms. Southern Australia continues to be dominated by a trough that divides hot air to the north and cooler air to the south. When a low drifting in from the Australian Bight reaches this unstable zone on Sunday, it will quickly intensify. Rain and storms over northwest Vic and adjacent SA Sunday morning will spread east during the afternoon and become heavy. Eastern Victoria and adjacent NSW is also where the strongest winds will occur. Gales with gusts over 120km/h are expected for parts of the southeast coast and the alpine areas before the low moves out over the Tasman Sea. Gusts over 90km/h are also possible for the NSW tablelands further north as the low forces powerful westerly winds over the ranges. Rainfall totals will peak over near alpine areas with widespread 12-hr falls of 30-60mm and some isolated falls of near 100mm, mostly falling in around 6 hours during Sunday afternoon. Further afield, widespread 24-hr rain of 20-30mm is expected across large areas of Victoria and the southwestern inland half of NSW as the low helps brew storms and rain near the lingering trough. Similar totals are also possible for northeast Tasmania as the low grazes the region on its way past. Once the low moves away early Monday morning, the blustery weather will not be over for southern parts, with a series of cold fronts bringing gusty showers to southern Victoria and Tasmania on Tuesday and Wednesday. The cold air with these fronts will lower the snow level, especially over the Apple Isle. While the initial air behind the low on Sunday night/Monday morning will only be cool enough to bring the odd snow shower above about 1700-1800m, by Tuesday morning the snow level will have lowered to 1000m over Tasmania: a white Christmas Eve for those up high. Image: Forecast 10-m wind gust animation from Sunday morning to evening, according to Access-C Victoria/Tasmania. Source: Weatherzone. Image: Forecast temperature and wind at around 5000ft above the surface, showing the hot-cold north-south divide and strong winds near the low. Wind at this level is often a good proxy for surface wind gust strength outside alpine areas and shows greater than 50 knots (90km/h) over parts of eastern Vic and NSW. Source: Weatherzone. Image: Forecast storm potential according to GFS, 3-hrly rainfall and 10-minute wind according to ECMWF at 2pm Sunday afternoon, showing a swath of stormy rain extending from Vic to southern Qld and the NT. Source: Weatherzone.