Australia’s 10 sweatiest towns as revealed by the Summer Stuffiness Index - and all of them are in WA

WA has delivered a clean sweep in the battle for Australia’s stuffiest towns — taking all 10 spots in a new ranking of more than 3300 locations.

From the Kimberley to the Pilbara, WA’s tropical north has dominated the list after researchers crunched a decade of summer climate data to identify the places that have endured the most relentless combination of heat and humidity.

Kununurra has been crowned Australia’s stuffiest town, scoring 91.44 out of 100 across the 10 summers from December 2016 to February 2026.

Port Hedland and South Hedland followed in second and third, while Wickham and Derby rounded out the top five.

The research ranked 3389 Australian localities, with 371 in WA, based on how often afternoons reached at least 30C, average summer maximum temperatures and morning humidity.

The numbers show just how punishing the northern summer can be.

Kununurra recorded almost 877 days above 30C across the 10 summers, with an average summer maximum of 36.37C.

But it was the combination of heat and moisture that pushed the Kimberley town to the top.

Port Hedland recorded even more 30C-plus days — 894 — while its average summer maximum was 36.65C.

South Hedland was hotter again, averaging 37.01C across summer, while Wickham recorded the highest average maximum of the top five at a scorching 37.80C.

The rest of the top 10 was almost entirely a tour through the Pilbara with Bulgarra, Pegs Creek, Baynton, Millars Well and Nickol also making the cut.

The result means WA didn’t just produce Australia’s hottest handful of locations. It produced the entire top 10.

The Summer Stuffiness Index was commissioned by home services company Ken Hall and used daily climate data covering 902 summer days between December 2016 and February 2026.

Hot days accounted for half of each locality’s overall score, with average afternoon temperature making up 30 per cent and morning humidity the remaining 20 per cent.

The ranking was based on localities with at least 1500 usual residents at the 2021 Census.

The research comes ahead of summer, with forecasters watching the development of El Nino conditions that can bring hotter and drier conditions to large parts of Australia.

Ken Hall chief executive Brad Hall said households should prepare their cooling systems before the first major heatwave arrives.

“When the mercury climbs and stays up for weeks, it puts real pressure on the parts of a home people never think about until they fail,” he said.

“Air conditioners run flat out, switchboards carry more load than they were ever designed for on a mild day, and hot water systems and pipes cop it too.”

Homeowners have been urged to service air-conditioners before the summer rush, clean filters, check older switchboards and avoid running multiple high-load appliances at once during the hottest part of the day.