Weekly Update: 20th December 2024

Highlights:

• The next week:
  • Fairly quiet for Christmas week!
  • Proper rain contracts up to the far north
  • The south is on a temperature rollercoaster:
    • the southeast: a cold outbreak to begin (cold enough for snow on the alps!), then hot by Christmas Day, cool change at end of week
    • the southwest: has the heat early (low 40s in Perth by Monday), before milder air arrives by Christmas Day
• We take a look back at where and when the rain fell this year, and what that meant for drought
• Our current SSTA's show there is an abundance of moisture around much of Australia, so that whenever the weather pattern wants to push it in we'll see heavier rain than usual
• A sneak peek at the drivers by Autumn next year
• Our whip around the country including your Christmas Day forecast and a new look for Jane's Update
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In this series I'll take you through the drivers of our weather, highlighting any changes over time and things to watch out for (generally every Friday). It covers weather elements like temperature and rainfall, and how they are driven by moisture from the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as bursts of energy from low pressure (SAM and MJO).

See and hear my commentary as I take you through the weather pattern's effects on our rain and temperatures in detail over the next week, with a brief look at week 2 and beyond as well.

Plus what is driving our weather in the weeks and months ahead, with the latest on El Nino/La Nina, the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD), the Southern Annular Mode (SAM controls our weather systems), and the Madden Julian Oscillation (MJO connects tropical moisture to our weather systems).

I update this commentary each week, generally on Friday's. Make sure you are signed up (free or a subscription) so you don't miss an update.

Stay up to date with the forecast specifically for your area in our hour by hour outlook for the next 10 days. Download our app for iPhone and Android.

As always, you can see each of these graphics as soon as they update, as well as more information about them under our Rain Outlook and Seasonal Outlook pages within Jane's Update, along with our Snow Forecast in the snow season.