{"id":470894,"date":"2025-12-25T14:19:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:19:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/470894\/"},"modified":"2025-12-25T14:19:22","modified_gmt":"2025-12-25T14:19:22","slug":"perth-christmas-weather-west-aussies-head-to-the-beach-for-celebrations-in-sweltering-heatwave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/470894\/","title":{"rendered":"Perth Christmas weather: West Aussies head to the beach for celebrations in sweltering heatwave"},"content":{"rendered":"

The beach was the place to be on Christmas Day, with tens of thousands of West Aussies flocking to the water donning their best festive gear as the mercury soared.<\/p>\n

Temperatures hit a sizzling high of 42.1C \u2014 narrowly avoiding the unwanted record of Perth\u2019s hottest Christmas in 2021 when the city reached a scorching 42.8C.<\/p>\n

Perth recorded its high about 3.30pm, and also dodged its record of highest minimum temperature on record, dipping to just 24.8C about 5am.<\/p>\n

In light of the extreme heat, City Beach was among those completely packed out on Thursday morning, with families adorned in matching shirts, and groups of friends sharing food and drink.<\/p>\n

\"(FromCamera Icon(From left) Harry Grace Mitch Harrison , Matt Craddock, Dylan Burke, Martha Mccashin, Bethany Ball, Abi Bishop and Anthony McFarlane. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Nick Slattery spent the morning at the beach with his family, before they headed on to a big family lunch.<\/p>\n

He said family had been trying to keep cool in the heatwave conditions and had already moved their Christmas plans inside.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have a water pistol flight at the end of the day to really cool ourselves down,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have the water pistols but end up just having the hose on and then just a lot of ice and the air conditioning on full blast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt should be OK, hopefully we can stay cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Mr Slattery, Christmas pudding was a highly anticipated part of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll start off with seafood, as typical Australians so prawns, lobster etc, then we\u2019ll roll into a bit more of the traditional Christmas food, like roast pork, turkey, potatoes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen finally we\u2019ll top it off with Christmas pudding, handmade all by my mum, it\u2019s full scale, she starts the pudding in November and gets it all prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"(FromCamera Icon(From left) Mairead Seoighe, Claire Field, Grainee Arkins, Dierdre Seoighe and Eddi Owen. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Gr\u00e1inne Arkins spent the morning at the beach with her friends, who had come from Ireland and the UK.<\/p>\n

She said she wasn\u2019t quite used to the heat, having not spent summer in Perth before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2018m gonna spend it with all my friends, so we\u2019re all over from Ireland, so it\u2019s good to have everyone together,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bit different from a Christmas at home but yeah, it\u2019ll be unreal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is my sixth Christmas in Australia but usually I go over east or something, so it\u2019s good to spend it in Perth for once, I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite being on the other side of the world, Ms Arkins was making sure she gets a reminder of home.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh I\u2019ll have a big Irish breakfast, sausages, bacon, black pudding, all the bits, and then barbecue for our dinner, so no proper Christmas dinner,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cA bit of Irish, a bit of Aussie, a bit of a taste from home and then the Aussie taste as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"KristianeCamera IconKristiane Sulek, Calum Young and Jess Unsworth. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just the beach where families flocked to cool off, Matilda Bay also proved a popular spot for groups to cool off in the shade while kids played in the Swan River.<\/p>\n

Russell Boulden was down with his family as his kids tried out their new Christmas gift, a paddle board.<\/p>\n

He said the water was the perfect way to cool off.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already opened the presents, had a bit of a cooked breakfast at home, come down here for a bit of a swim and paddle around and then off to see the rest of the family mid-afternoon,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the hot weather we\u2019ve had, it\u2019s bloody brilliant down here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"RyderCamera IconRyder Boulden Wilson and Sirius at Matilda Bay. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the city temperatures soared past 40C, with Gooseberry Hill, Perth Airport and the Swan Valley recording tops of 43C, 42.8C and 41.4C respectively.<\/p>\n

And while Perth sweated through the blistering heat, the weather varied across the rest of the nation.<\/p>\n

Those in Mount Wellington near Hobart, Tasmania awoke to snow this morning making it a white Christmas.<\/p>\n

Those in the Central Midlands also received a dusting.<\/p>\n

Most of the mainland capital cities enjoyed mild weather in the mid- twenties to early thirties, but those in Melbourne had to bristle through a maximum of just 17C.<\/p>\n

For some areas the weather was expected to be more extreme, the Cocos Islands had a near brush with Tropical Cyclone Grant, which caused strong winds and heavy rain, but conditions eased through the day as the storm passed.<\/p>\n

\"(FromCamera Icon(From left) Erik Blixt, Linda Wigert, Lotta , Olivia (8), Riley and Elliot Kemp. Credit: Iain Gillespie\/The West Australian<\/p>\n

In Sydney, Anthony Albanese gave a Christmas message after helping serve food at Rev Bill Crews Foundation, a homelessness charity, which was offering free food to people in need.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged the Bondi massacre which killed 15 people celebrating Hannukah, saying Christmas was a time for the good in people to rise above hate.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas is a time of hope, hope over fear is what we need, bravery over cowardice, kindness over violence and togetherness over antisemitism and hate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what the spirit of Christmas is about, and that can be celebrated by Christians and non-Christians alike.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we particularly wrap our arms around the Jewish community, but overwhelmingly, I am an optimist about this great country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perth locals are in for some much-needed cool relief, with temperatures dipping to the high 20s for the rest of the week as a cold front moves through the State\u2019s south coast.<\/p>\n

Perth weather:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Boxing Day:<\/strong> Shower or two clearing, 21C – 25C<\/p>\n

December 27:<\/strong> Mostly sunny, 13C – 25C<\/p>\n

December 28:<\/strong> Sunny, 15C – 29C<\/p>\n

December 29:<\/strong> Sunny, 16C – 31C<\/p>\n

December 30:<\/strong> Sunny, 15C – 32C<\/p>\n

December 31:<\/strong> Sunny, 18C – 34C<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The beach was the place to be on Christmas Day, with tens of thousands of West Aussies flocking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":470895,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,44679,50,14737,8632],"class_list":{"0":"post-470894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-christmas","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-perth","12":"tag-wa-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115780647401368999","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=470894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/470894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/470895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=470894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=470894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=470894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}