50-degree days, 407 km/h winds and a metre of rain: The Aussie towns with incredible weather records
Weather is rapidly changing in Australia and towns across the country are experiencing record-breaking events, including winter heat waves and extreme winds.
Some locations Down Under still hold extreme weather records dating back to the mid-1800s.
Click through to see all the towns in Australia which have record-breaking weather events.
Oodnadatta (Hottest day ever)
The small remote South Australian outback town of Oodnadatta is holding onto the equal record of the hottest day ever in Australia.
The town set a scorching record of 50.7 degrees on January 2 in 1960.
The minimum temperature that day was a blistering 34.6 degrees.
Its winter record, as well as South Australia's winter record, is 36.5 degrees.
Onslow
It took 62 years for another Australian town to get close to Oodnadatta's record.
Onslow in Western Australia matched Oodnadatta after recording the same temperature of 50.7 degrees in January 2022.
Yampi Sound (hottest-ever winter day)
Australia recorded its hottest-ever winter day at Yampi Sound in the Kimberley region of Western Australia in August 2024.
The area, off the coast of north-west Ausralia, recorded a temperature of 41.6 degrees celsius on August 26.
It marked the warmest winter temperature in recorded Australian history.
Richmond, NSW (greatest overall temperature range)
The historic town of Richmond, north-west of Sydney, has the crown of greatest overall temperature range.
Richmond has recorded two extreme temperatures in history, -8.3 degrees to 47.8 degrees, according to Geoscience Australia.
Port Welshpool in Victoria (windiest town)
Port Welshpool, a tiny town in the South Gippsland region of Victoria, is anything but tiny when it comes to its wind speeds.
The area is the windiest town in Australia thanks to its annual mean windspeed recorded at 32.6km/h.
This mean windspeed is calculated at what it is on average at 3pm.
Barrow Island, WA (most extreme wind speeds)
Barrow Island, off the coast of Western Australia, has experienced the most extreme wind speeds in recorded history.
On April 7 1996, Barrow Island measured the highest wind-speed ever recorded on earth (outside of tornadoes) as Tropical Cyclone Olivia battered the island, with wind speeds reaching a staggering 407km/h.
Experts said this wind speed was produced by an individual meso-vortex, a circulation embedded within Cyclone Olivia's eyewall.
Nganmarriyanga (most lightning)
Nganmarriyanga, a small community in the Northern Territory aboyt 360km south-west of Darwin, is Australia's lightning capital.
It records around 200 lightning pulses per square-kilometre every year.
Charlotte Pass (coldest-ever day)
Charlotte Pass, a snow resort in the Snowy Mountains in NSW, had Australia's coldest-ever day in 1994.
The area recorded a temperature of -23-degrees, the lowest ever recorded in the country outside of the Australian Antarctic Territory.
Yalboroo (largest hailstone)
The Queensland town of Yalboroo, north of Mackay, had Australia's biggest-ever hailstones.
Giant hail rained down on the town in October 2022, and a 16cm hailstone was confirmed to be the largest ever to be recorded in the country.
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