Weather News

Hot, dry desert winds in WA heading south

Brett Dutschke, Sunday November 13, 2016 - 13:26 AEDT

Dry, desert winds will cause temperatures to reach the high thirties and low forties across western and southern parts of Western Australia in the next few days, leading to extreme fire danger.

For most places, the extreme heat and fire danger will be quite brief, only lasting one afternoon.

Temperatures will rise as much as 15 degrees above average and get within two degrees of November records.

A low pressure trough which has been lingering over the state's north for more than a week is now dipping south, taking hot dry, gusty winds with it.

The trough spent so much time in the north it generated a record hot spell in parts of the Kimberley. Wyndham exceeded 42 degrees for nine days running, equal to its previous record, set in December 1985 Records go back 60 years. The previous longest 42-degree spell in November was seven days in 1990.

On Monday it should reach 40 degrees in the Geraldton area and 37 degrees in the Perth area. As the trough moves east, temperatures will reach 39 degrees in the Albany area and 37 degrees in the Ongerup area, most likely their hottest November day in 13 years. Further east it should reach 37 degrees in the Esperance area on Tuesday and 40 degrees in the Eucla area on Wednesday.

These temperatures combining with wind gusts to 40-60km/h and humidity below 10 percent will result in fire danger reaching Extreme in many areas and potentially Catastrophic in some.

A front will bring a significant colder change, dropping temperatures by 15-to-20 degrees. This sort of temperature drop could occur in the space of a few hours in the Albany area late on Tuesday. The front will also help generate widespread showers and a few thunderstorms, mainly during Wednesday and Thursday.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2016

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

Satellites capture huge dust storm crossing Mediterranean Sea

14:32 AEST Images captured from satellites have revealed the colossal scale of a dust storm that turned the sky orange in parts of Greece earlier this week.