This was published 6 months ago
Short taste of Sydney summer to give way to rain and storms
Updated ,first published
Summer has come early to Sydney, with temperatures in the high 20s arriving only eight days into spring.
Sunny conditions and balmy temperatures have welcomed those who get a chance to go outside on Monday as the mercury hit 29 degrees at Observatory Hill and 30.1 degrees at the airport. Out west, Richmond, Liverpool and Bankstown also broke the 29-degree mark.
Monday’s temperatures are well above the mean September maximum of 20.1 degrees, but they will still be several degrees lower than the month’s heat records.
That title belongs to a September day in 1965, when Sydney sweltered through temperatures of 34.6 degrees.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s Jiwon Park said the “unusually warm” weather wasn’t expected to last long. The balmy conditions arrived courtesy of a warm air mass being pushed ahead of an oncoming cold front.
“Ahead of the passage of a cold front, you usually get heat because the winds come northerly and they draw heat from inland Australia,” Park said.
“That’s why we are seeing some warmer temperatures for spring.”
The heat will quickly dissipate, making way for successively colder days, starting with showers on Tuesday.
“[The warm weather] will not last long, because of a change into wet and windy conditions and a drop in temperatures thanks to the passage of a cold front on Wednesday,” Park said.
A dumping of up to 30 millimetres of rain is forecast for Wednesday, isolated downpours possibly reaching 50 millimetres to 70 millimetres in parts of Sydney. Wednesday will also bring a chance of thunderstorms.
The poor weather will continue on Thursday. While the rain will lighten, heavy southerly winds are expected to follow the cold front and low-pressure systems at speeds of 20 to 30km/h.
Dry weather will return on Friday, ahead of a mostly sunny weekend.
The start of spring also marks the beginning of NSW’s storm season. While dangerous storms can strike at any time, the SES designates September to April as the state’s official storm season to promote awareness and preparedness.
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Josefine Ganko is an overnight producer for The Sydney Morning Herald based in London. She was formerly a breaking news reporter and news blogger.Connect via X or email.