National Weather Forecast: Wet on the east and west coast, sunny elsewhere

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]Hello from the Bureau of Meteorology.

[00:00:02]Today is a Wednesday, hump day, the 20th of May.

[00:00:05]Let's dive in and take a look at the forecast for tomorrow, Thursday the 21st.

[00:00:09]And our biggest weather system, or at least our most impactful one, it's not actually over the country at the moment.

[00:00:14]I have to step back out of the way to show you this low pressure region here that's building in the Tasman Sea.

[00:00:20]That will, in the coming days, generate some really large waves, as well as some wind and showers across the eastern coastline.

[00:00:27]Away from the east coast, for the most part, it's a high pressure scenario.

[00:00:31]So this is the centre of our high across Victoria, but its influence really extends across central Australia.

[00:00:36]Lots of fine weather through those regions. And to the south-west, a weak cool change will move through Perth on Thursday.

[00:00:42]We'll get to that when we get to Western Australia.

[00:00:44]For now, a look at Queensland.

[00:00:46]A bright, clear, sunny day up here, temperatures a little bit on the cool side of the ledger, particularly out through central parts where temperatures are about 5 °C below average for the time of year.

[00:00:56]It will be sunny and dry for 99% of the state, but that 1% that could get rain is down here in the very far south-east.

[00:01:03]Surfers Paradise, Coolangatta and the Gold Coast could get a couple of passing showers and some cool southerly winds.

[00:01:09]Everyone else looking dry.

[00:01:12]Southerly winds up eastern New South Wales will bring passing cloud cover and passing showers from Wollongong northwards all the way up to that state border.

[00:01:20]That includes, of course, the Sydney metro area and up through Newcastle as well.

[00:01:24]Rainfall totals will be low through the day tomorrow, many people sitting in the 2 mm to 8 mm range.

[00:01:29]Just enough, though, to make you look back and think, yeah, it was a pretty wet day when it's all said and done.

[00:01:35]Dry, bright and sunny skies on the western slopes and out towards the far west.

[00:01:38]Also bright and dry across the southern ranges, including around Canberra, although quite a cool start there at 2 °C and a mild high of 17 °C.

[00:01:46]It will tend to a sunny day in Victoria, but it might start off a bit cloudy, a bit foggy, maybe even a light spot of drizzle for a couple of southern areas, particularly on the southern-facing slopes of the mountains.

[00:01:58]Any cloud, fog or drizzle should clear up by about lunchtime.

[00:02:01]High pressure moves in and it's going to be a lovely afternoon as the sun comes out and the wind dies away to near nothing.

[00:02:08]Tasmania much the same, little bit of morning cloud, possibly a little bit of morning fog, maybe even a little bit of morning frost here, particularly around the central high country and up towards the northern coastline.

[00:02:19]That should mostly clear apart and let the sunshine through.

[00:02:22]It'll be a bright afternoon in Hobart with a high of 17 °C.

[00:02:26]A dry day in store for South Australia with high pressure firmly planted overhead.

[00:02:31]Not much wind around, plenty of sunshine and near seasonable temperatures, 20 °C in and around the Adelaide area.

[00:02:38]A little cooler as you track south and a touch warmer by 1°C to 3 °C as you move north and west.

[00:02:45]For Western Australia, the morning will actually be bright and sunny right across southern Western Australia, but once we get to the afternoon, that's when this cool change will reach the south-west Capes and then move across the South West Land Division.

[00:02:57]So showers into Perth, some stage during the afternoon hours, also getting across to Albany here too.

[00:03:03]When it comes to rain pushing inland up into the Wheatbelt, it won't be a lot, just a couple of showers, nothing too useful in the gauges.

[00:03:10]Further inland, out towards Kalgoorlie-Boulder, down towards Eucla and the Nullarbor, dry and fine weather persists.

[00:03:16]And actually, if we look at the top of the map, a little bit of unusual unseasonable rainfall moving through parts of the Pilbara.

[00:03:21]Could be some showers and storms around the likes of Karratha pushing across to Port Hedland as well, and even by the end of the day potentially up into Broome.

[00:03:29]So we could see some of that wet weather moving into parts of the Kimberley during Thursday afternoon or evening.

[00:03:36]Aside from that rain on the WA coast, it's a dry picture across most of the rest of northern and central Australia.

[00:03:42]Temperatures are on the cool side.

[00:03:43]Alice Springs single digits to kick off up to a high of 19 °C, but further north across the Top End, a lovely clear day in Darwin, 23 °C to 32 °C as our temperature range.

[00:03:54]That's the picture for the weather tomorrow.

[00:03:56]If you'd like more info for the rest of the week, or check out what it's looking like this weekend, find your local spot on the Bureau Weather app or the BOM website.

[00:04:03]Thanks very much for sticking with me and watching this forecast.