During March 2011, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) along the coast of southwest Western Australia (SWWA) were anomalously high, and this event has been termed the Ningaloo Niño event, due to the very significant impacts associated with the marine heatwave event. During the same period, SWWA also experienced concurrent heat wave conditions over land. This work investigates the influence of the anomalously high SSTs on the atmospheric heat wave conditions. Two simulations are carried out with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model version 3.9.11, from October 2010 to May 2011, both driven with lateral boundary conditions from ERA Interim reanalysis. The control simulation uses real-time observed SSTs and the experiment uses SSTs averaged over all previous La Niña years from 1981 to present. Results show that even though the SSTs were lower in the experiment, the atmospheric temperatures over SWWA were higher as compared to the control simulation. This suggests that the atmospheric heatwave in March 2011 would have occurred irrespective of the marine heatwave. Hence, the anomalous high SSTs along the coast of Western Australia are not likely to be a key driver for the terrestrial heatwave.