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.