Australia weather: Temps to drop in the east as rain develops over Queensland on Sunday

A warm start to winter for Australia’s east will come to a close next week, as unseasonably warm temperatures are set to take a tumble.  

Sydney shattered winter temperature records last week, with the longest run of June days over 20C in almost 170 years – 13 to Friday.  

Sunday in Australia’s most populous city is due to remain mostly sunny with a high of 20C and a low of 11C.

The city will see cooler days after Sunday, with highs expected to remain around 16 and 17C for the week.

Further north, a band of rain from central to southeastern Queensland is expected to develop overnight into Sunday and settle into consistent rainfall over the afternoon.  

“We’re expecting the afternoon to be fairly wet and gloomy across the southeast coast in particular and some areas just a little way inland,” Sky News Australia meteorologist Rob Sharpe said.  

The state’s capital will get reach 22C during the day, with a low of 16C. 

Wet weather in eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales will contract over the Sunday. 

Cooler temperatures for Australia’s southeast, however, will endure until the new week. 

The temperatures will aid some snow showers in the alpine regions, though the general outlook for Sunday remained “mediocre”, Mr Sharpe explained.  

“The cold nights mean that all of the ski resorts will be making as much snow as possible and there are some signs that we may end up with another weather system coming in during the Victorian school holidays in about a week-and-a-half’s time, hopefully one’s cold enough for snow, rather than this primarily rain-bearing system,” he said. 

Further south in Melbourne, a cloudy day is forecast, with the mercury to slide between 9C and 15C.  

Adelaide and Canberra will both see tops around 15C and rain on Sunday.  

Temperatures in the nation’s capital will sink to 3C, and just 7C in the City of Churches.  

A high-pressure system over South Australia will push wet weather away from Australia’s east coast for the beginning of the week. 

A large front, however, will hit the west coast on Friday and traverse southern Australia over the weekend, bringing rain to the east by Sunday. 

Mild temperatures are expected in Perth alongside a generally cloudy forecast on Sunday, likely to develop into significant rainfall over the coming week.  

The front will drag weekly expected rainfalls about 30mm above average over the week for the west coast.  

North in Darwin, a sunny day could hit a top of 31C, with the lowest expected temperature just 20C.