Brace for impact, Australia!

Sydney sweats through warmest July ON RECORD as state endures devastating drought – with Australia's south coast on track for a windy week as Perth eyes down torrential downpour

• Sydney experienced its hottest July on record as NSW battled through drought
• The high temperatures were 19.8 degrees, 3.4 degrees more than expected
• City's airport recorded 16 days above 20 degrees - most warm days on record
• The run of warm and dry weather is expected to continue in the harbour city
• But other parts of Australia will be lashed by rain and battered by strong winds

the Daily Mail,

5 August, 2018

Sydney has experienced its hottest July on record, with the warm and dry conditions set to continue in the harbour city.

But Australia's south is in for wet and windy conditions over the next week courtesy of a series of low pressure systems.

Perth is expected to be lashed by rain, with heavy falls and hail possible on Thursday, while parts of South Australia will be battered by winds of up to 120km/h.

Most days this week will be above 20 degrees in Sydney, with the city climbing to a high of 26 degrees on Saturday.

Sydney experienced its warmest July on record - and the warm conditions are set to continue with most days this week set to be above 20 degrees +11

Sydney experienced its warmest July on record - and the warm conditions are set to continue with most days this week set to be above 20 degrees

Over in South Australia, Tuesday and Wednesday are shaping up to be windy, with Kangaroo Island to be the hardest hit as wind gusts of 120km/h are expected.

Neptune Island is staring down winds of up to 90km/h, while the rest of the state's coast can expect winds of up to 95km/h. Wind gusts will peak in the evening.

Parts of Victoria will experience wind gusts of up to 100km/h as the system moves east.

Weatherzone senior meteorologist Jacob Cronje told Daily Mail Australia a strong cold front will bring showers to southern parts of the nation.

The front will push through southern Western Australia, southern South Australia, most of Victoria and also Tasmania by mid-week, he said.

South-west Western Australia will be impacted the most by the cold front, with isolated thunderstorms also possible.

Mr Cronje said most of the remainder of the country will be dry, with a majority of parts looking at warm days and cold nights.

'Inland parts of the country with the exception of the far south are going to have generally warm days well into the weekend,' he said.

While Sydney experiences a record run of warm and dry conditions, parts of southern Australia are in for wet and windy conditions over the next week

The run of warm weather for Sydney comes as the city experienced a July which was warmer than normal, with New South Wales enduring a devastating drought.

'Mean daily maximum temperatures were the warmest on record for July for most sites across Greater Sydney,' the Bureau of Meteorology said in its July climate summary.

'Mean daily maximum temperatures ranged from 1.4 degrees above average at Lake Macquarie and Mount Boyce to 3.5 degrees warmer than average at Observatory Hill.

'Warm days persisted throughout most of the month, with Sydney Airport recording 16 days above 20 degrees, the most warm days on record, and well above the July average of four days.

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As Sydney experienced its warmest July on record, NSW as a whole had its fifth-driest July on record. Pictured, a map which shows the maximum temperatures across the state in July 

 

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New South Wales had its driest July since 2002. Pictured, a map which shows rainfall across the state in July

 

'Dry conditions were experienced across the region with most sites recording less than 20 per cent of their typical July totals.' 

It was not just Sydney which was warm and dry but the rest of New South Wales which experienced unseasonable conditions. 

About 99 per cent of the state is in drought.  

'It was the fifth-driest July on record and driest since 2002 for New South Wales as a whole,' BOM's July climate summary said. 

Meanwhile, storage levels at Sydney's Warragamba Dam have fallen bellow 70 per cent. This time last year the dam was sitting at almost 92 per cent. 

In the last six-months, large areas of NSW have experienced their lowest rainfall on record, and most of the rest of the state isn't far behind.

Almost all of NSW has received less than 20 per cent of its usual rainfall since January, and Australia as a whole just experienced its warmest and driest July in 20 years. 

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From May 1 to July 31, NSW experienced 50-100 mm of rainfall while inland Australia only had 2-10mm of rainfall 

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The map shows which areas experienced their lowest rainfall on record compared to the highest on record 

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There are now concerns a 'hot and deadly' summer is on the way.

ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes heatwave expert Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick told Weatherzone that Australians should be expecting extreme weather considering the dryness and warmth of the past few months. 

'We are heading towards an El Nino summer, so we are more likely to have hotter and more extreme weather,' Dr Perkins-Kirkpatrick said. 

'We should certainly be worried.' 

With such a dry and warm July and above-average temperatures expected, the chances of El Niño forming in spring is at 50 per cent - which is double the normal chance, according to Weatherzone.