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<\/p>\nNo, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) website is not glitching, Australia’s weather map has actually ground to a halt.<\/p>\n
Seven-day forecasts from Darwin to Melbourne, and everywhere in between, reveal a monotonous similarity \u2014 for some towns, a variation of less than 1 degree Celsius through the entire week.<\/p>\n
The stagnant pattern is due to a stationary ‘blocking high’ in the Tasman Sea, and there’s no sign the system will break down at any point in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This is not BOM data error, the Brisbane forecast is actually the same every day during the next week \u2014 showers and 25C or 26C. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Groundhog day extends to a fortnight<\/p>\n
In the mid-latitudes, highs and lows ordinarily move steadily east (due to Earth’s rotation), and a typical system takes only three or four days to cross Australia.<\/p>\n
However, occasionally the atmosphere over a region becomes immobile thanks to the presence of a “blocking high”, the name given to a high-pressure system which stalls and blocks the normal eastward progression of weather systems.<\/p>\n
The current high first drifted into the Tasman Sea back on Monday, and by Friday was still just east of Bass Strait, a position modelling expects will hold for at least another week.<\/p>\n
And the stubborn high has completely jammed up Australia’s weather chart, both deflecting cold fronts and lows well south of eastern states, while also ensuring winds are blowing in the same direction at a similar speed every day.<\/p>\n
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While most blocks only last a few days, the current stagnation may last up to a fortnight \u2014 removing the standard day-to-day variability typically experienced in mid-latitude climates.<\/p>\n
The exact type of repetitive weather currently being experienced all depends on your location in Australia in proximity to the high.<\/p>\n
Showery east coast, days of sunshine for inland and south<\/p>\n
Winds blow anticlockwise around highs in the Southern Hemisphere, so for areas north of the centre, an easterly airstream is dominant, and for the east coast north of about Sydney, that means onshore winds and a daily dose of showers.<\/p>\n
Brisbane’s forecast is comically consistent with showers and 25C or 26C every day until at least next weekend.<\/p>\n
The persistent stream of moist onshore winds could even deliver more than 100 millimetres of rain near the New South Wales-Queensland border by next weekend.<\/p>\n
However, the eastern inland will see little if any rain, since low pressure is usually required for significant precipitation for regions away from the coast.<\/p>\n
West of the high, the anticlockwise rotation of winds is resulting in a northerly airstream, and that’s an offshore direction for the southern coastline, explaining the unseasonably lengthy run of sunny days in Victoria and South Australia.<\/p>\n
And if a difference of 1C in a week is too inconsistent, parts of the inland have the exact same temperatures forecast every day, a forecast so rare you would think it’s a BOM glitch.<\/p>\n
Bendigo is a prime example. The city is tipped to hit 25C with mostly sunshine until next Saturday, and that follows near identical highs ranging from 23C to 25C already this week.<\/p>\n
![\"the](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/743088dd8bfc33a08a821fc5c0a661f2.png\")
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You won’t need to check the weather forecast in Bendigo for another week. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
Dubbo is another location with an identical looking forecast; sunny and 27C for seven days straight.<\/p>\n
Further west, Western Australia is far enough away from the Tasman high to see regular cold fronts, so Perth’s forecast during the coming week is far more changeable than eastern capitals.<\/p>\n
Jet stream anchors high-pressure system in Tasman Sea<\/p>\n
So why is a high-pressure system stuck in the Tasman when the Earth is still spinning\uff1f<\/p>\n
Blocking patterns at the surface are associated with abnormal behaviour of jet streams about 10 kilometres above the ground.<\/p>\n
Jets are fast flowing ribbons of wind which both blow from west to east and can travel at speeds well above 200 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n
There are two jet streams in each hemisphere \u2014 the subtropical and the polar, and under normal conditions they are close enough to keep weather systems mobile in the mid-latitudes.<\/p>\n
The subtropical jet stream typically sits at a latitude of about 25 to 30 south, stretching from about WA’s Central West to south-east Queensland.<\/p>\n
But the jet is currently bending well north over Queensland, reaching a tropical latitude in the Coral Sea equal to Cairns.<\/p>\n
![\"a](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1566276b0ab54755f87f90a9bf9ba396.png\")
<\/p>\n
A split in the polar and sub-tropical jet streams over eastern Australia are cradling a stationary high pressure system. (ABC News)<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the polar jet is diving south below New Zealand, and that’s opened up a broad region of calm winds, the perfect environment for the cradling of a strong high in the Tasman Sea.<\/p>\n
However, the relationship between highs and jets is complex.<\/p>\n
Once a strong high has stalled, it helps to divert the very jet stream which split to cause the highs formation.<\/p>\n
With both systems now reinforcing each other, blocks have the potential to last for several weeks.<\/p>\n
Thankfully, the current blocking high won’t bring severe weather, but Tasman blocks can produce flooding along the eastern seaboard, and in summer can prolong heatwaves over south-east Australia for weeks.<\/p>\n
Eventuall,y a blocking pattern will weaken, and at this stage the weather charts are likely to unlock and remobilise when a stronger front approaches south-east Australia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, according to some modelling, that may not occur until after next weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"No, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) website is not glitching, Australia’s weather map has actually ground to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628884,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,163268,304819,30558,304817,6884,259180,304818,304820,44,12815,64222,304816],"class_list":["post-628883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australia-weather","tag-australias-weather-chart","tag-bass-strait","tag-blocking-high","tag-bureau-of-meteorology","tag-coral-sea","tag-high-pressure-system","tag-jet-streams","tag-news","tag-southern-hemisphere","tag-tasman-sea","tag-whats-the-weather-for-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628883","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}