National weather forecast: Sunny in east, cold front for Tas and WA

Hello with the National Weather Forecast, taking a look at how we’re ending the working week. That’s the forecast for Friday the 18th of September, signing off first with the national picture and straight away we can say a very large and dominant high pressure system centered over southern parts of New South Wales. Clear skies overnight does mean morning fog and frost that will lift to a mostly sunny and mild to warm day across the east and the southeast of the country. For Tasmania, though, with that approaching cold front it will become windy with showers picking up later in the afternoon and into the evening. For Western Australia, that heat does come to an abrupt end as a cold front sweeps across southern parts of the state, bringing showers and thunderstorms with those colder winds from Friday night, as well as into Saturday morning. For northern Australia those south easterly winds keep pushing showers onto coastal areas, but away from the coast we are expecting hot conditions to continue with elevated fire dangers right across the north of the country.

So now a state by state look, starting off with Queensland, we’ll see some patchy morning showers in the southeast, that will clear to mostly sunny day. Showers also for coastal areas north of Rockhampton and most likely by the northeast and tropical coast there. Otherwise, with those easterly winds we are expecting a warm day. High fire dangers across the west and the north west of the state. Otherwise looking to be mostly dry. For Brisbane partly cloudy, top of 25 degrees and a couple of showers up in Cairns with a maximum of 27.

Now looking at New South Wales. You will see some patchy morning fog and frost to inland areas, maybe also the chance of a light shower about the north eastern coast. But with the westerly winds picking up we will see a sunny day. Temperatures are on the rise, reaching the mid to high 20s for many locations, and we are expecting to see high fire danger across the Hunter region. For Sydney. A sunny day, 23 degrees, little bit of a cooler start, particularly for western Sydney and for Canberra. Morning fog and frost but then mostly sunny day to follow. A top of 22 degrees.

Over in Victoria we are expecting patchy morning fog and frost, mainly north of the divide that will lift to a mostly sunny day. Temperatures reaching the low to mid 20s and it will be dry day right across the state. Windy though along the coast and those winds will pick up as you head into the afternoon and evening with the approaching cold front. Otherwise, for some of the centers. Melbourne. Patchy morning fog and frost through the outer suburbs, going for 22 degrees and mostly sunny afternoon to follow. Warm in Mildura 25 degrees after a pretty cool start there.

Now to Tasmania. It will be a mostly dry start. Just a few showers about the west coast but it will be very windy. We do have a Severe Weather Warning for damaging winds, that also includes Hobart. And then in the afternoon as that cold front approaches, showers pick up across the west and the south of the state and extend across many districts. And we will see much colder air coming through into the evening. Quite a mild day before that cold front comes through though. Hobart reaching 20 degrees with late showers and up into the high teens across the north west of the state.

Now across the South Australia, the sunshine continues. We could see some patchy frost across the southeast, but the northerly winds push temperatures up into the low to mid 20s in the south and the high 20s across northern parts of the state. Adelaide, a sunny day, 22 degrees there and reaching 29 degrees up in Moomba and across the northern parts of South Australia.

Over in the west, we will see those hot northerly winds bring the temperatures up above about ten degrees above average for the south coast, also quite warm into the goldfields. With that trough there we could see some patchy showers and afternoon thunderstorms ahead of that cold front, which would bring another band of showers and thunderstorms, as well as gusty winds from the afternoon and into the evening. So for Perth, partly cloudy to start, showers picking up from the afternoon with cooler westerly winds as we head into the weekend, but further north it will be a hot day across the Gascoyne and the Pilbara.

Finally, for northern Australia, we’ll see a couple of showers about the Gulf Coast as well as the northern coast of the Kimberley. But with those gusty easterly winds we will see elevated fire dangers reaching high for many districts and extreme fire danger is forecast for the Darwin area, including the possibility of smoke around the metro area. Quite a hot day as well to reaching the mid to high 30s across the Kimberley. Darwin sunny with a top of 34 degrees.

That’s the forecast for today. Stay up to date with the latest warnings and information on our website and app.