Sydney and Melbourne can expect a week of unseasonal warmth – relatively speaking – thanks to an abundance of uninterrupted sunshine over inland Australia.
But the predictions follow a weekend of strong, gusty cross-winds that caused 40 domestic flights into and out of Sydney airport to be cancelled and dozens more delayed, resulting in long queues and disrupting school holiday plans.
Sydney airport moved to single-runway operations in accordances with International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) regulations following the rough weather.
The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a sunny and relatively balmy mid-winter week ahead for Sydney with temperatures expected to hover around a 20C maximum.
Melbourne is predicted to have a week of 16C maximums with some rain.
These are unusual numbers for this time of year in both cities. According to the BoM’s 150-year historical weather averages, the mercury should be 4C lower in both.
In Sydney, average maximum temperatures in July are usually around 16C.
The average maximum for Melbourne at this time of year is 13.5C.
BoM meteorologist Angus Hines said though this data is useful, the “industry standard” is to compare temperatures going back the past three decades.
When looking at data between 1991 and 2020, the maximum average temperature for Sydney in July is 17.9C and 14.5C in Melbourne.
“Sydney is going to be a little bit warm over the next few days,” Hines said. “There’s a few different reasons for that, part of it is to do with the pattern over Australia at the moment.”
Hines said clear skies and “lots of uninterrupted sunshine” were warming up areas inland and strong westerly winds left in the wake of a cold front were “going to pull [those] slightly warmer conditions over Sydney”.
Melbourne has an additional factor in its slightly warmer temperatures.
“Normally through the winter months it’s common to get cold outbreaks and that’s when conditions drop lower than average, but we don’t have any cold outbreaks over the course of this week so there’s nothing to bring in any chilly temperatures,” he said.
The BoM has damaging wind warnings in place across parts of New South Wales but expects these conditions to fade into next week.
“As we finish the weekend and move into next wind, that westerly wind will ease away,” Hines said. “While it will be coming from the same direction, the strength will be easing.”
The world recorded its hottest week on record last week.
Average global air temperatures reached 17.18C on Tuesday, according to data collated by the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction. These temperature readings were even higher than the 17.01C reached on Monday.
For the seven-day period ending on Wednesday, daily average temperatures were 0.4C higher than any week in 44 years of record keeping.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, whose figures are considered the global standard in climate data, said on Thursday it could not validate the unofficial numbers that had been reported.
The BoM has yet to officially declare an El Niño in Australia although it is likely to confirm the weather pattern in the later winter months.
• This article was amended on 11 July 2023 to remove the word “basks” from the headline and “enjoy” from the first paragraph.
