Weather: Australia swelters through another blistering day of heat in Sydney, Adelaide

Australia has sweltered through another scorcher as Sydneysiders braved the 42C sun to flock to the beach ahead of a cooler day on Monday. 

Sydney, Adelaide and chunks of regional NSW sweltered through the hottest November night on record, with no respite likely until late Sunday afternoon. 

While temperatures are set to cool in South Australia and Victoria on Sunday afternoon, residents in NSW’s eastern and northeastern regions will sweat through another long day.

Central Sydney hit 40C as northwesterly winds hold back the sea breeze, while Penrith in the city’s west will reach 42C.

Weatherzone meteorologists forecast that Sydney will still be 40C at 3pm, before plummeting to 27C by 6pm and cooling down further to 22C by 9pm.

Temperatures across the Hunter are forecast to hit 43C, while much of northeastern NSW will break the 40-degree barrier.

Beaches in Sydney’s eastern suburbs were relatively busy on Sunday afternoon, however they weren’t as packed as previous cooler days this spring. 

Coogee, Bondi and Bronte drew large crowds, but there was still plenty of space on the sand for beachgoers to socially distance. 

A gusty southerly will not arrive until later on Sunday afternoon from 3pm onwards, bringing cooler temperatures for Monday.

Sydneysiders will enjoy a brief respite from the sweltering weather on Monday, when temperatures are forecast to drop down to 23C in the east and 25 in the west, before rising to 27C on Tuesday.

‘In terms of the change coming through this afternoon, we’ll probably see it between 3pm and 5pm through the Sydney basin, and with that we’ll see temperatures drop fairly significantly,’ Bureau of Meteorology meteorologist Helen Kirkup said. 

Parts of Sydney – including the CBD – also broke the 40-degree barrier on Saturday while swathes of western NSW, South Australia and northern Victoria baked through even higher temperatures approaching 45C.

On Saturday night, Observatory Hill in central Sydney recorded a minimum 25.3C, shattering 1967’s November record of 24.8C.  

Saturday’s overnight minimum at Nobbys Head in Newcastle was 24.1C, breaking a 64-year record of 23.1C. 

Southeast and southern Queensland are also likely to experience elevated temperatures from Monday, with no respite until at least Thursday. 

The RFS has issued a total fire ban for most of eastern and northeastern NSW for Sunday, including Greater Sydney, the Illawarra, Hunter and north coast.

The service tweeted that it has been a ‘challenging few days’ for firefighters across NSW, with more than 100 blazes burning from border to border in the past two days. 

‘Firefighters were flown to a fire on the Qld border, while grass and crop fires near Berrigan kept crews busy. Hot weather continues today,’ the RFS said.  

RFS Deputy Commissioner Peter McKechnie on Friday urged NSW residents to have fire plans ready and prepare their properties.

‘This is the first time since the devastating season last year we’ve seen widespread elevated fire danger,’ he said.

Last summer’s bushfires destroyed 2476 homes and claimed 26 lives.