Perth’s sunny skies have worked against it in a global study into dangerous road conditions, taking the unwanted title of Australia’s worst driving weather from Sydney and Melbourne. The research from car insurance company MoneySuperMarket looked at data from 138 cities around the world, scoring each on categories like extreme heat and erratic rain.

Each city was given an overall risk score out of 100, based on separate risk scores for cold weather, hot weather, wet and windy weather and erratic weather gathered using data recorded over the last three years. Obviously, cold conditions are hardly ever a concern down under, where snow and ice on roads isn’t a problem unless you live in areas like the high country, but heat is a different story.

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Perth topped the risk index with a mark of 61.9, ahead of Sydney on 58.6, Melbourne on 58.3 and Brisbane on 56.2. The Western Australian capital’s total was largely driven by its hot weather risk score of 20.8 out of 25, which easily beat the other cities. 

When it comes to heat, the study looked at factors including the number of days when the maximum temperature reached at least 35C. Dangers associated with driving on very hot days include the risk of tyre blowouts and overheated engines, not to mention driver reaction times slowing by as much as 20 per cent.

Perth also got the worst mark on the Aussie table with a wet/windy weather risk score of 18 out of 25, just ahead of Sydney on 17.4. Surprisingly, famously wet Melbourne with its four seasons in one day only tallied 14.2. Days with winds of 72km/h or more were regarded as causing unsafe driving conditions.

There was better news for Sandgropers on the erratic weather front, with Perth recording 11.5 out of 25, compared to 12.8 for Sydney, 13.9 for Melbourne and 12.7 for Brisbane.

On the global front, Dallas, Texas was the riskiest city on the planet with an overall score of 72.5, driven by its hot-weather risk of 22.0. Second was Osaka, then Houston, Bucharest in Romania and Florence in Italy.