Australians are about to say goodbye to winter, but warmer spring weather is still a little way off with the first weekend of the new season expected to be cold to mild for most.
The bureau is forecasting a warmer and drier spring for much of the country this year, but for the first weekend temperatures are expected to be subdued in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.
Only Brisbane is expected to bask in days above the mid-20s.
The start of spring also means storm season is on the way, which the east coast got an early taste of this week as a large and broad system hit NSW and parts of Queensland and Victoria.
More than 34,000 homes were left without power on Wednesday night as the thunderstorm smashed northern parts of Sydney.
“[That storm] is a bit of an indication of what we can expect as we head towards spring where the sorts of storms become common,” Bureau of Meteorology’s Jake Phillips said.
Sydney
Sydneysiders are set for a chillier start to spring this Friday, with temperatures to drop to a minimum of 10C degrees in the city and to a frosty 5C degrees in the west.
Things will heat up throughout the day to a maximum of 20C degrees in the CBD and 21C degrees in Penrith.
There will be a slight chance of a shower in the morning, especially in coastal areas and things are expected to get windy.
“Winds west to south-westerly 15 to 20 km/h turning southerly in the late morning then increasing to 30 to 45 km/h, then decreasing to 15 to 20 km/h in the late evening,’ the BOM forecasts.
Meanwhile, temperatures aren’t looking much hotter for the weekend and Father’s Day, with the city expecting a high of 19C degrees and a minimum of 9C degrees.
The good news is that there’s only a five per cent chance of rain and only a little bit of cloud for dad’s day.
Melbourne
Unsurprisingly, Melburnians are set to shiver through the first day of spring with temperatures expected to struggle to reach 15C degrees during the day before plummeting to 4C degrees over Friday night and early Saturday morning.
It’ll also be a dreary day on Friday with plenty of cloud cover and a medium chance of showers throughout the Dandenongs.
The good news is that the weather will clear up and warm up by Sunday where there’s not expected to be a cloud in the sky and temperatures will reach 20C.
The first weekend in September also marks the start of the AFL finals.
Brisbane
Southeast Queensland may be the only state to be bringing in the warmer weather correctly, with a balmy and mostly sunny day on the cards.
Friday will see the mercury hit a minimum of 14C and a max of 28C coming out of days of stormy weather.
There’s also expected to be a light wind expected to come in around midday to cool things off in the afternoon.
Temperatures will drop over the weekend with Saturday’s high expected to be 24C.
Brisbane fathers are in for a treat this Sunday with a partly cloudy day and 25C temperatures on the cards.
Perth
Those in the west are in for a rainy start to spring with as much as 15mm set to fall in Perth over the next three days.
Friday will see showers developing along with winds of up to 35km/h before slowing to more of a drizzle on Saturday.
Meanwhile the majority of the rain is set to fall on Sunday with a “very high” chance of showers.
The temperature is also set to drop off over the weekend with a high of 23C on Friday, 20C on Saturday and 18C on Sunday.
Adelaide
Cloudy weather will roll into Adelaide on Friday alongside a subdued maximum of 17C and a chilly minimum of 8C.
The sun will come out from the clouds on Saturday, warming things up to a max of 21C degrees with a 9C minimum.
Father’s Day is set to have the best weather of the week with no clouds forecast and a maximum of 24C.
BOM’s spring outlook
After Australia’s warmest winter since 1996, were the national man temperature is tracking to be 1.54C above the 1961-1990 average, spring is also expected to be balmier than usual.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s long-range forecast for spring, released on Thursday, indicates a different season to last year.
Bureau climate services manager Dr Karl Braganza said unusually warm days are likely for almost all areas over spring, especially Western Australia and parts of the southeast.
He said there was a significant contrast in climatic conditions this spring compared to last year when Australia had its second-wettest spring on record.
“This spring, the forecast shows most areas have a high chance of below average rainfall, and many areas have an increased chance of an unusually dry spring,” he said.
And that brings the increase in bushfires risk – especially in NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
The recent wildfires in Canada and Hawaii underscore risks that Australians are familiar with, in particular the catastrophic potential of fires that can occur near urban areas during periods of low rainfall,” Dr Braganza said.
Northern Australia’s wet season will begin in October, but the bureau says the first significant rains of this northern wet season are likely to be later than usual for northern areas.