Hottest day in a decade

Albany enjoyed its warmest December day in a decade on Sunday.

After tops of 33.2C on Friday and 32.4C on Saturday at the Albany Regional Airport weather station, the bureau forecast a milder maximum for Sunday.

But the mercury had already reached 31C by 8.45am at the airport.

Three hours later, with winds staying offshore longer than expected, it hit 38.4C.

That made it the hottest day at Albany’s official weather station since 2009.

At another weather station near the harbour, which is not managed by the bureau, the temperature peaked at 31.4C — the highest December maximum since 2004.

Forecaster Pete Clegg said the bureau published its forecasts for the Albany townsite, despite its nearest weather station being 11km away at the airport.

He said it was “pretty frustrating” they did not have an observation post at the heart of one of WA’s biggest regional centres.

“We only have an observation at the Albany Airport, which is quite a long way inland and in a lot of cases we’ve seen that be not representative of the main townsite centre,” he said.