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Troughs over northern WA, the NT, Qld and northeast NSW are triggering rain and thunderstorms, some intense. Westerly winds between fronts are bring gusty cooling showers to Tas. A ridge of high pressure keeps southern WA, SA, Vic and much of NSW dry.
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Today, 2:17AM UTC
White Christmas likely for parts of Tasmania
Snow will fall this week from Tuesday, December 23, for at least a couple of days in elevated parts of Tasmania, with a few flakes likely to persist into Christmas Day. That means a White Christmas for our southernmost state in the heart of the Australian summer. Tasmanian summer snowfalls often consist of just a few flakes at the state's highest points, such as the summit of Cradle Mountain (1545m) or Tasmania's highest peak Mt Ossa (1617m). But this week, snow is expected to fall as low as 900m on the Central Plateau and 800m on more southerly areas by Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. So there's a strong chance that the Christmas snowfalls will be experienced not just by bushwalkers in remote, exposed areas, but by residents of towns like Miena (elevation 1052m, population just over 100) on the southern shore of Tasmania’s Great Lake. Even Hobart residents might be lucky enough to catch a flake or two up towards the 1271m summit of Kunanyi/Mt Wellington, assuming the road is open. How unusual is Australian snow at this time of year? Brief snowfalls tend to occur at the highest elevations of Tasmania and the high country of the southeastern mainland at least once each summer. Indeed, Tasmania saw snow a week ago even as bushfires burned in the state’s east, while snow was reported at the mainland ski resorts on December 1. While the cold fronts that circulate the Southern Ocean tend to slip southwards during the Australian summer, the occasional pool of unstable polar air is always a chance to push northwards at this time of year. That’s what will occur this week, and it’s largely thanks to the jet stream – the swift-moving "river" of air high in the atmosphere which generally blows from west to east. The jet stream tends to move in waves in what is known a meridional pattern, sharply dipping to the north and south as it moves east. This week, the meridional pattern will allow cold air to be dragged up towards Tasmania and out into the Tasman Sea. Image: The expected pattern of the jet stream over Australia at 11pm this Wednesday, December 24, 2025, showing air from the south being pushed over Tasmania. While the far southeastern mainland will be relatively cool for much of this week, the coldest air and most of the associated moisture will stay south the mainland. Melbourne will experience a brief touch of wintry weather on Christmas Day, with an unseasonably cool maximum of just 17°C. When Melbourne gets cold in winter, Canberra generally does too. But the national capital will miss the coldest weather this week, with a sunny maximum of 26°C expected on Christmas Day – although there will be a chill on Boxing Day morning after a minimum of just 6°C. In Hobart, a showery Christmas Day should reach just 16°C, with Boxing Day topping out at a brisk 15°C even though skies will start to clear.
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.