The high pressure has caused the air over the continent's interior to warm. When cold fronts move across the south of Australia they push this warm air ahead of them, bringing warm and windy conditions to southern coastal areas. This is similar to the weather pattern we see in summer when cities such as Adelaide and Melbourne experience their hottest days.
On Thursday, an approaching cold front is forecast to lift temperatures ahead of it to about 23C in Adelaide, 20C in Melbourne and 18C in Hobart. These are very warm temperatures in these locations for early August. And what about the oceans? Around Australia, oceans are a bit cooler than average in some places includingBut as the image below shows, ocean temperatures are currently above normal in many places around the world, including the west Indian Ocean and the central and eastern tropical Pacific. This indicates a developing El Niño and positive Indian Ocean Dipole — two natural climate drivers that affect Australia's weather patterns.
Over the coming months, warm and dry weather is expected to continue. For the rest of winter and spring, it's expected to be