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Western Australia endured its third-warmest year on record in 2025, according to new data from the Bureau of Meteorology.
The bureau’s preliminary key summary for Australia’s temperature, rainfall and water resources in 2025 – released on Monday ahead of its Annual Climate Statement – also revealed the nation had posted an average temperature 1.23 degrees above the 1961-1990 average, making it the fourth-warmest year since records began in 1910.
Perth’s hot summer has drawn many to the beach.Credit: Getty Images
WA’s average temperature was 1.27 degrees above the 1961-1990 average, while its maximum temperature was 1.68 degrees above average – the equal second-highest on record.
Rainfall in the state was 2 per cent above average, with an annual average of 346 millimetres, according to the summary, while soil moisture was also above average on WA’s Kimberley coast.
The summary also revealed the national average temperature for each month was above average, with January, February, March and October within the top five warmest on record.
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Bureau of Meteorology climatology specialist Nadine D’Argent said between January and March, and October and December, large parts of Australia experienced heatwave conditions “reaching extreme severity at times”.
“Australia’s warmest year was in 2019, when the national annual average temperature was 1.51C above average,” she said.
“Rainfall was below average for most of Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia, southern and inland areas of New South Wales and large parts of Western Australia.
“Rainfall was above average for much of Queensland, northern and eastern parts of the Northern Territory, coastal areas of New South Wales and northern and some southern areas of Western Australia.”
The new data comes after Perth sweated through a scorching Christmas Day, where the mercury hit 42.1 degrees – 0.7 degrees shy of the 42.8 degree record set just four years earlier in 2021.
Several regional records were still broken, with Cape Leeuwin posting 39.6 degrees – 1.2 degrees higher than its previous record, set in 1968 – and North Walpole reaching a peak temperature of 37.3 degrees.
Temperatures nosedived the following day, however, with a cool change keeping Perth to just 25 degrees as squally rain flowed through the city.
The bureau’s full Annual Climate Statement for 2025 is set to be released in February.
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