Christmas Day in Australia is hot, humid and thundery in the north, windy in the south, stormy in the southeast and dry and warm on the west coast.

We predicted that a front would cross southern Australia, bringing a cooler, gusty change while a low pressure trough causes showers and storms in the southeast and north of the country. A high keeps much of the southern inland and west coast sunny. A tropical cyclone should affect Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean.

Observed extremes are –

Hottest – 30-degree minimum at Broome in Western Australia’s north and Cloncurry in Queensland’s west and 42-degree maximum at Julia Creek in Queensland’s west and Nyang in Western Australia’s northwest

Coldest – 3-degree minimum and 10-degree maximum at Mt Read in Tasmania’s west

Wettest – 70mm in the Victoria River Downs area in the Northern Territory’s north and on Cocos Island northwest of WA and 60mm in the Dubbo area in New South Wales’s central-west

Cloudiest – 2 hours of sunshine at Bourke in NSW’s north-west, Mt Isa and Birdsville in Queensland’s far west and Tennant Creek in the NT’s interior

Sunniest – 13 hours of sunshine in Perth in WA’s southwest and in Woomera and Loxton in South Australia’s north

Windiest – 95km/h at Cocos Island and 80km/h at Neptune Island in South Australia’s south

Calmest – 20km/h at Halls Creek in WA’s north

Capital cities’ Christmas reports appear on the weatherzone.com.au homepage.

– Weatherzone