Sydney’s warm start to the October long weekend on Saturday is expected to give way to scorching heat and blustery winds on Sunday, raising the prospect of total fire bans around the city.
The mercury was expected to reach a top of 26 degrees in the city, and 33 degrees in Penrith, on Saturday, before soaring to highs between 35 and 37 degrees across Greater Sydney on Sunday.
Sydneysiders soak up the sunshine at Clovelly in the eastern suburbs on Friday.Credit: Brook Mitchell
Weatherzone meteorologist Corine Brown said Saturday afternoon would be warm and humid, before “very dry” west and north-westerly winds ushered in hot and gusty conditions on Sunday.
“We are looking at a fairly good chance of total fire bans across the Sydney basin and potentially out to the Southern Highlands and Blue Mountains areas on Sunday,” Brown said.
She said parts of Sydney’s outer west, such as Penrith and Windsor, would likely reach 37 degrees, while areas closer to the city centre might be a few degrees cooler.
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“The timing of the sea breeze will be pretty crucial in terms of whether it gets into ‘extreme’ territory of 35 degrees or more there.”
Sunday’s heat was expected to peak for the NRLW grand final at 4pm, and linger until the 7.30pm kick-off in the NRL decider, as thousands of spectators are expected to pack Sydney Olympic Park.
“We’re still looking at about 28 and 30 degrees between 7pm and 8pm, and it will be a steady drop in temperature but by the time the game finishes it’s still going to be in the low-20s,” Brown said.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued an extreme weather warning for damaging winds in parts of the NSW south coast, Snowy Mountains, southern tablelands, south-west slopes and ACT on Sunday.
The bureau forecast peak gusts of 90km/hr in parts of the Snowy Mountains as west to north-westerly winds became more powerful in southern NSW before a cold front swept through Victoria.
The temperature was expected to dip to a maximum of 25 degrees in Sydney on Monday, with some possible thunderstorms, before rising to a top of 33 degrees on Tuesday.
“We could also be seeing some pretty high fire danger, and potentially total fire bans, across the Sydney Basin with those high temperatures on Tuesday as well,” Brown said.
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Overnight temperatures are also expected to rise in coming days, with minimums hovering at 16 or 17 degrees, which “could be a bit of a whiplash effect for some people” used to chillier mornings.
Brown said the hot, windy conditions were driven by an inland trough in the centre of Australia.
“Those westerly and north-westerly winds are going to be directing a lot of that very hot air towards the east coast.”
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