A climate scientist from a leading Australian university has warned the unseasonably warm May weather in Western Australia and across the nation is a sign of things to come, because of the damage caused by climate change.

Perth has had maximum temperatures in the low 30s and high 20s for much of May, and the forecast is for maximums above 25 degrees Celsius to continue over the next seven days.

A number of regional areas have had unseasonably warm weather, with some experiencing dry spells as well.

"In places in WA we've seen max temps around eight to 10 degrees above normal in the last few days with this more recent spell of heat," said Dr Andrew King from the University of Melbourne.

"So we're talking about a significant heat event, obviously without the same kind of really big impacts compared to a heatwave at the peak of summer," he told ABC Radio Perth.

Dr King says it was part of a concerning trend across all months of the year.

"We know our autumns are getting warmer, and indeed WA had its warmest March on record this year due to human-caused climate change," he told ABC Radio Perth.

"So we should be expecting a continued trend towards warmer autumns, and we know that southern Western Australia has quite a clear drying trend as well which we expect to continue over the coming decades.

Dr King said the trend was already having significant impact on the state's marine life, and that was set to continue.

"Generally having higher temperatures stressed coral and increases the likelihood of bleaching and even coral mortality," he said.

"The marine heatwave around the north west coast of Australia has been particularly extreme in the last couple of months."

He suggested the warmer weather had been caused by the impact of man-made emissions.

"It's very clear when we look at weather station data over the last 100 or 150 years that there's a very clear trend towards higher temperatures, including in the autumn," Dr Kind said.

"It's not exactly the same as it would've been if we hadn't been emitting greenhouse gases."

On WA's southern coast, the warmer days are being felt by farmers.

Vegetable and flower grower Steven Piacun said the heat had hindered autumn planting.

"Most of these crops don't love the hot, hot start, they prefer a nice warm start and then a bit of moisture as well," he said.

"We had some issues with some of our flowers, normally they would start being planted in February and March.

"However, this year we planted them, but they just never came up because the soil temperature was still too warm."

It meant he had to replant the ranunculus and anemones flowers, as well as the sugar snap peas.

The warmer season also prompted Mr Piacun to trial a different set of plants.

"We've also been experimenting with some heat-loving crops, here we have bitter melon which has traditionally never been grown around Albany," he said.

"It's a beautiful healthy plant. I'll probably try it on a bigger scale next year and see how it goes."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-12/perth-autumn-weather-significant-heat-event/105281498

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