Australian Weather

06 Nov 2026, 3:06AM UTC

A burst of cold, wet and windy weather will spread across parts of Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and the ACT this weekend, with snow likely to fall in three states as large waves batter the NSW coast. While summer is less than four weeks away in Australia, this weekend will serve up a taste of winter-like weather as a cold front surges across southeastern Australia. The front will reach Tasmania on Friday before crossing Victoria on Friday night into Saturday morning, then passing over NSW and the ACT on Saturday. Tasmania Rain and blustery westerly winds will spread across Tasmania on Friday and persist on Saturday. The heaviest rain will fall in the state’s west and south, where onshore winds will interact with the state’s mountainous terrain, possibly causing around 10–30 mm of rain on Friday and Saturday combined. The cold snap should see snow settling in parts of central, western and southern Tasmania on Friday night and Saturday. Snow is expected to start falling above 800 metres elevation on Friday evening and could reach down to around 500 metres by Saturday morning. A Bush Walkers Weather Alert has been issued for parts of Tasmania’s Western and Central Plateau districts, where conditions will be hazardous due to cold temperatures and settling snow on Friday night and Saturday. Hobart is forecast to reach a maximum of only 14°C on Saturday, which is about 5°C below average for a November day.   Image: Forecast accumulated rain over southeastern Australia for the three-day period ending on Sunday night. Source: Weatherzone. Victoria Showers and blustery winds will spread across Victoria on Friday night and Saturday as the cold front passes over the state. Most of the rain associated with this system will be confined to the state’s south and east. Showers could fall as snow on the state’s eastern ranges on Saturday, possibly as low as 800 metres. Some areas in southern Vic may also see small hail among Saturday’s showers. Melbourne’s temperature is forecast to reach around 15°C on Saturday, although most of the day will feel cooler than 8°C due to wind chill. NSW and the ACT The cold front will enter southern NSW and the ACT on Saturday morning before spreading northward across NSW throughout the day and reaching the state’s northeast at night. Showers will affect some southern, central and eastern parts of NSW and the ACT on Saturday, with thunderstorms also possible in the east. Storms are most likely to develop near the southerly change as it moves towards the north throughout the day. Severe thunderstorms are possible between the South Coast and Mid North Coast, including Sydney, Wollongong, the Central Coast and Newcastle. Snow is also likely in the NSW alps on Saturday, possibly reaching about 800 metres elevation in the afternoon and early evening. Image: Forecast 850 hPa temperature and mean sea level pressure at 5 am AEDT on Sunday, November 8, showing cold air spreading over southeastern Australia as a low pressure system develops over the Tasman Sea. Source: Weatherzone. Sydney is likely to see a sharp temperature drop on Saturday as the southerly change blasts through the city. The mercury could climb to around 30°C in the city before the southerly arrives and causes the temperature to dive sometime between about 2–5 pm. The temperature could drop by more than 10°C in an hour or two when the southerly change arrives. Sunday will remain cool and showery along the NSW coast as blustery southerly winds persist. The city’s temperature is expected to feel lower than 10°C throughout Sunday. Large waves are also expected to develop along the NSW coast on Sunday as a low pressure system develops over the Tasman Sea. Waves could reach around 2–3 metres, with the largest waves expected to impact south-facing beaches.

05 Nov 2026, 4:39AM UTC

Australia has recorded a temperature differential of almost 50 degrees within just half a day, as the northwest and southeast of the country experience vastly contrasting weather conditions. Between 2 and 3 pm on Wednesday in northwest Western Australia's Kimberley region, two locations exceeded 47 degrees. The town of Fitzroy Crossing hit 47.1°C while Mandora (a cattle station) reached 47.4°C. Both were monthly records.  Between 2 and 3 am this Thursday in the Victorian high country, Mt Hotham dipped to -2.5°C, Australia's lowest recorded overnight temperature. That was precisely 49.9°C colder than the temperatures measured just half a day earlier at the diagonally opposite end of the country. Meanwhile just over the border in New South Wales, a little fresh snow settled at the top of Thredbo, as the snow cam image taken just before 9 am this Thursday shows (temperatures were unavailable due to an outage at Thredbo Top Station automated weather station). Image: Light snow at the top of Thredbo on the morning of Thursday, November 5, 2026. Source: ski.com.au.… Why is it so hot in northwestern WA? A heatwave has been underway since Monday in WA's northwest due to a slow-moving upper-level high pressure system which has allowed a very hot air mass to build over the region without dissipating. Image: Heatwave severity for the three days from this Thursday, November 5, 2026, in Western Australia and nearby states. Source: Weatherzone. The heatwave continues this Thursday with the mining town of Marble Bar in the Pilbara expecting a maximum around 46°C. Even the coastal Pilbara town of Port Hedland could reach a temperature around 45°C this afternoon. While the Kimberley and Pilbara regions are both typically hot at this time of year with average maximums of 40°C or higher at many locations (indeed November is typically Fitzroy Crossing's hottest month before tropical influences knock a few degrees off during summer), many locations are still experiencing a run of maximums several degrees above average. Why so cold in southeastern Australia? A cold front whipped through the southeast overnight, and while it wasn't a particularly strong or wet system, it still brought in enough moisture and cool air from the south to trigger a few snow flurries on the peaks of Australia's highest mountains. A stronger cold front will surge across the southeast on Friday evening. This one will also trigger some snow showers, but its colder air mass should cause snow to fall to elevations as low as 800 or 900 metres on the mainland and 500 metres in southern Tasmania. The bottom line is that Australia is a vast land of weather contrasts on any day or month of the year. But sometimes – and especially during spring – parts of the country see extremes typical of summer while other parts experience wintry conditions, and the usual contrasts between regions thousands of kilometres apart are hugely magnified.