Southeast Australia to shudder through school holiday weekend as WA basks in “unbelievable” warm run

The mercury is set to plummet in many of the nation’s capital cities on Saturday, a week into the Autumn school holidays in many states.

Bureau of Meteorology Senior Meteorologist Dean Narramore said the drop, driven by southerly winds coming across the southeast, could come as a surprise.

“We’ve started seeing the colder fair heading into autumn which isn’t record-breaking, but coming out of summer those cold bursts always feel that much colder,” he said.

Mr Narramore said those heading north were also out of luck, adding: “Southeast Queensland is also looking pretty wet this weekend and even into northern NSW”.

In Sydney, temperatures were set to reach just 23C on Saturday – down from 25C the week before – with a 90 per cent chance of between 3-15mm of rain.

The likelihood of rain is set to lessen into the evening, according to the Bureau of Meteorology, despite coastal areas facing up winds of up to 45km.

Further south, the mercury in Melbourne sat at just 13C on Saturday morning and was forecast to rise only as high as 18C amid cloudy conditions.

It comes after Melburnians sweltered through a whopping maximum temperature of 28C only a few weeks earlier on April 1.

Canberra and Hobart meanwhile hovered around 10C on Saturday morning, and were forecast to warm to no more than 20C.

While on the warmer side, Brisbane – which sat at 20C on Saturday morning – was forecast to receive a drenching of as much as 15mm in the afternoon and evening.

Queensland schoolchildren returned to the classroom on April 15, while kids in NSW and the ACT are not set to return until April 30.

While “beautiful” conditions were forecast for coastal NSW next week, Mr Narramore said holidaymakers looking for a warm break this weekend should “go west”.

“Amazingly, Perth continues this unbelievable run of warm, sunny weather. They are looking at pretty much 30C and sunny today and tomorrow,” he said.

“In Darwin, the wet season is wrapping up there as well (with) lots of sunshine in temperatures in the low-30Cs”.