WITH soaring temperatures expected for Christmas Day, it might be an idea to pop some ice cubes in with Santa's milk and biscuits.
The South West in particular will see temperatures rise 10C above the normal.
"We are looking at a lot of those places along the west coast and down into the south west being sort of around 10 degrees above the average for December," said Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Jessica Lingard
Pinjarra will be looking at 42 degrees, Harvey 41 and Collie will hit 40.
"The north easterly winds are going to be dragging that hot air all the way down, even to Pemberton, where you're heading for a top of 37 degrees," Ms Lingard said.
"If you draw a line from say Walpole to Mount Barker, and extend it out, anywhere north of that is going to be plus 35 degrees for Christmas Day.
Albany, Denmark and Esperance will just escape the heatwave, with Christmas Day seeing a pleasant 24 degrees in Albany, 29 in Denmark and 27 for Esperance.
The exception will be Salmon Gums, who will be opening presents in 35 degree heat.
As for the Central Wheatbelt, temperatures should be at about 40 degrees today.
"Most places within the Central Wheatbelt will be over 40 degrees by Friday, so then on Saturday you are looking at 42 for the bigger towns, Dalwallinu and Northam," Ms Lingard said.
The 'coolest' town in the region will be Southern Cross, who will still see a hot day of 39.
While a cool change should see temperatures back down from the 40s on Monday, the rest of the week will stay in the high 30s for most towns across the region.
The Central West district will be seeing similar conditions as the Wheatbelt.
"What's driving this is a trough developing off the west coast that's going to be over the water, deepening as we head towards the weekend," Ms Lingard said.
"That's going to cause the north easterly winds to drag down this hot dry air from inland and northern parts, taking it all the way to the coast.
"Anywhere from Kalbarri southwards is going to see these hotter temperatures."
Kalbarri will hit 42 for Christmas Day, Mullewa will go as high as 44.
The Central West won't see much reprieve however, with temperatures staying in the low 40s right up until early next week.
Ms Lingard expects a cool westerly change to come through once the trough moves onshore.
The Gascoyne will experience typical hot weather, as is normal for this time of year and Gascoyne Junction is expected to reach 47 degrees on Christmas Day.
In the Pilbara, some regions are in the final days of a heatwave, with Marble Bar seeing 47 degrees on Tuesday.
These temperatures will remain quite stable, with Marble Bar sitting at 46 degrees for the next few days, going down to 44 on Christmas Day.
Just in time for Santa to arrive, Pannawonica will reach 41 degrees, Port Hedland 37 and Karratha will see 36.
"Basically what we're waiting for is for the monsoon trough to drop down over Australia," Ms Lingard said.
"We usually see that moving through Darwin around Christmas, we are still seeing some of those afternoon showers and thunderstorms developing but definitely once the monsoon hits the northern parts then we will see a bit more of that activity pushing a bit further south."
Want weekly news highlights delivered to your inbox? Sign up to the Farm Weekly newsletter.