Perth officially hits new weather record for hottest start to summer, as temperatures soar to 38.5C

Perth has officially had its hottest start to summer on record, with the mercury tipping to a sizzling 38.5.

Temperatures had already soared to 31C when most people began arriving at work about 8am on Monday, before climbing to 37.6C about 12.30pm — beating the previous December 1 record of 37.4C in 1979.

By 1pm, temperatures had risen to 37.8C, before jumping to a blistering 38.5C about 1.30pm. As of 3.30pm, the temperature had fallen slightly to 37.5C.

Taryn Crofts spent the morning playing beach cricket with friends at City Beach, and described the weather as “swelteringly hot”.

“We decided to get to the beach early because we knew (the temperature) would peak, so we got to the beach around 9.45am,” she said.

Ms Crofts said she and her friends had the day off, and said they would spend the rest of the day beach-hopping around Perth.

“We’ve gone down to Fremantle to escape the peak because we knew it would get really really hot and really busy, so now we’ve gone down to Bathers Beach so we can spend time on the beach lounges,” she said.

“We thought it would be busier, our feet were burning in the sand so I think that’s put a lot of people off, but we knew we wanted to cool down in the water today.

“We’ll just be here drinking cocktails and eating chips by the beach.”

Thirteen-year-old Maliykh Arnaout took a dip a City Beach with his mother and brother, and said the cool water was a welcome relief.

“It was pretty hot, the UV was pretty high and it felt nice to get in the water because of how hot it was,” he said.

“I went boogie-boarding and did some skim-boarding as well.”

Elsewhere around the city, the mercury soared past 38C including 38.7 in Pearce, 39C at Perth Aiport and a stifling 39.4C in the Swan Valley.

Geraldton — which is currently under the grips of a terrifying bushfire — soared to 40.5C.

A Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson said hot easterly winds were responsibly for for bringing the heat from inland WA.

They said Perth was on track for a warmer than average summer, with forecast temperatures about eight to 10C above the December monthly average.

“Summer days and nights are likely to be warmer than average for Perth and south-west Western Australia,” the spokesperson said.

“There’s also an increased chance of unusually warm nights for Perth and south-west Western Australia, where unusually warm nights are those in the warmest 20% of summer nights historically.

“There’s also a slightly increased chance of usually warm days too.”

On Sunday, Premier Roger Cook urged West Australians to take care this summer.

“The sun will get you, it is hot, and if it doesn’t burn you it will dehydrate you significantly, so take care,” he said.

“And particularly if you’re in and around some of our great water playgrounds, please take care, particularly in the open ocean, because this coastline can be deadly.”

Locals can look forward to a cool relief, with maximum temperatures dipping to 30C on Tuesday, 25C on Wednesday and 26C on Thursday.

PERTH WEATHER FORECAST

• Tuesday: Partly cloudy, 18-29 ⛅️
• Wednesday: Sunny, 16-25 ☀️
• Thursday: Sunny, 13-26 ☀️
• Friday: Mostly sunny, 13-25 ⛅️
• Saturday: Sunny, 15-28 ☀️
• Sunday: Sunny, 15-29 ☀️
• Monday: Sunny, 15-28 ☀️

Forecast sourced from the Bureau of Meteorology.