Good to luck to those of you who managed to get a little shut-eye last night in Perth, because your city just sweated through its hottest night in eight years.

After the mercury briefly kissed 40°C on Wednesday afternoon (for the first time since early January and for just the second day of 2021 to date), things didn't cool down much overnight as the northeasterly airflow continued to drag warm air from the interior of Western Australia towards the coast.

• At midnight, Perth was still 31.2°C.
• Even at 2:30 am, it was still 29.1°C.
• The overnight low temperature came at 5:30 am as the mercury dipped to 26.8°C.

That overnight minimum of 26.8°C was notable for several reasons, including:

• It was Perth's warmest night (in any month) in nearly eight years.
• It was the warmest December night in nine years.
• It was also the warmest night on record this early in the summer (since records started being kept in 1897).

Image: Perth will be much milder for the next week. Source: @juhiking via Pixabay.

After the minimum was recorded at 5:30 am, the mercury soon began rising rapidly again. By 8:00 am local time as we were writing this story, it had already passed 30°C with a reading of 30.2°C.

To put that in perspective, the average 9 am temp in Perth in December is 22.6°C.

The good news for Perth locals with sweaty sheets is that after another warm day today with a predicted top of 36°C, mild conditions are likely to dominate for the next week or so, after a southwesterly wind shift around the middle of the day today.