Geraldton enjoying a cooler summer than last year’s scorcher, with less than half as many days hitting 40C

Geraldton appears to have avoided a repeat of last summer’s high number of scorching temperatures so far, with the weather much closer to the norm this time around, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Summers are always hot in this part of the world, including February 4 where Geraldton was the hottest place in the world, but with less than half as many days hitting 40C between December 1 and February 5, this summer has been more manageable than last. This summer has seen seven days where the mercury has hit or exceeded 40C, while that mark was reached on 18 days during the same time in summer of 2021-22. Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Jessica Lingard said this summer has been closer to the norm for the region. “That year was definitely the anomaly year, this year is what summer is supposed to look like,” she said. Last summer, there were a number of troughs that remained over Geraldton for longer than usual, but that has not happened this year, according to Ms Lingard. “This year they’ve been doing what they are supposed to do, they form, they hang around for a day or two, and then they move easterly quite quickly,” “Last year, what we saw was these troughs forming and hanging around for days on end, so we saw lots of heat waves.” Ms Lingard said she expected to see the cycle of warmer and cooler days continue without any drastic change throughout February. The calmer trend is being seen across the south of the west coast, with Perth going a year without a day hitting 40C.