Large swathes of Australia have had an unusually warm first Saturday of winter, with Sydney expected to reach a maximum of 22C and Adelaide expecting a top of 23C.
Maximum temperatures will be warmer than usual for much of the country for the next week, with some areas expected to record temperatures as high as eight degrees above their June average.
The Bureau of Meteorology said a high pressure system extending across all of the eastern states as well as South Australia and the Northern Territory was causing the mild weather.
Sydney’s Saturday forecast of 22C is five degrees above average, while Adelaide’s top of 23C is seven degrees above its June average.
Hobart was expecting a maximum of 14C, two degrees above the average maximum for June.
“We’ve got a really large high-pressure system above the east coast. It’s extending a ridge of high pressure across the eastern two-thirds of the country,” Miriam Bradbury, a senior meteorologist at the BoM, said.
“It’s not moving away very quickly, it’s holding a very stagnant air mass. Every day the sun warms it and it heats up a little more.”
Bradbury said there was no sign a cold front would move through for at least a few days. Rain is expected to develop late Sunday for the eastern states but she said temperatures would remain mild for the time of year.
“Temperatures should stay 2-8C above average. It’s not really going to change,” she said.
“Wear your T-shirt but take your umbrella.”
Bradbury said the far south-east of the country was likely to experience a cold change by Friday but most of New South Wales and Queensland would see continued above-average temperatures.
The long-range forecast for winter shows a very high chance of exceeding maximum temperatures for much of Australia and an above-average chance of exceeding average minimums. The Bom has also forecast drier conditions for virtually all of the country.
There is a growing likelihood of both an El Niño and a positive phase of the Indian Ocean dipole developing in the coming months, both of which are linked with warmer and drier conditions.
