What is Christmas like in Australia?

What is the weather like at Christmas in Australia?

• Answer:

  Australia is a huge country, and subject to great variety of climatic extremes, even in the middle of summer, which is when Christmas falls in Australia. It depends on where you are. The weather at Christmas is usually within the range of very warm to even hotter. In the north, the weather is very hot and humid, and December is one of the months when cyclones may hit, anywhere along Queensland's central coast, north through the Gulf country and over to the northwestern coast of Western Australia. The city of Darwin was devastated by a cyclone on Christmas Day 1974. In the south, Christmas is prime bushfire time, when temperatures can be excessively hot, and dry as well. Central Australia is also very hot and dry during this time. Tasmania and other regions of southern Australia can fluctuate quite widely, from cool and pleasant to hot and dry.