Meteorologists were predicting NSW would set a state-wide record for February warmth during the current heatwave but few would have tipped the mark would be broken two days in a row.
The blast of summer heat has placed south-eastern Australia on the map as the hottest place on the planet.
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| Some like it hot: NSW state records were swept away in latest heatwave. Photo: Jessica Hromas |
Before Friday, NSW had never had a February day above 42 degrees, based on averaged maximums in the state, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
The state cleared that mark with 42.4 degrees on Friday, as the incessant heat that has roasted the state's north-west for weeks drifted over the rest of NSW.
According to preliminary bureau data, Saturday's average temperature leapt even higher, touching 44.02 degrees.
"We easily beat the February average heat record and came very close to an all-time record," Simon Louis, senior NSW meteorologist at the bureau, said.
Forecasters had been tipping maximum temperatures would be in the order of eight degrees above average on Saturday. As the bureau chart below shows, most of the state exceeded 12 degrees above the norm for February top temperatures.
Sydney's short break from the heat
The city will have a chance to cool down at the start of this week before the mercury will start to rise again from Thursday onwards.
The bureau is expected to compile a Special Climate Statement this week to assess how the current eastern Australian heatwave fits within the bigger bursts of heat over the past 100 years.
The preliminary reading for Saturday could, after analysis, even pip the record statewide reading for any month, set at 44.06 degrees on January 14, 1939.
That heatwave was part of a weather event that included the huge 1939 bushfires that burnt through more than 200,000 hectares and left dozens dead in Victoria and elsewhere.
Fire authorities have warned this weekend's conditions were unprecedented.
February's previous record daily high for NSW was set on February 15, 2004, at 41.99 degrees.
The coast and parts of the ranges were the only areas in NSW to escape high-30s or 40s on Saturday. (See bureau chart below.)
Sunday was unlikely to come close to the two previous days as a cool change was set to keep a lid on maximums for much of southern NSW.
Still, more records are set to fall, including in Walgett. The north-western town sweltered in 47.9 degrees, the second hottest level recorded in NSW in February.
Walgett is also among towns vying to break the record for the number of days in a row above 35 degrees that now stands at 50, at Bourke Airport in 2012-13. That tally will be broken within days on current forecasts.
Temperatures above 47 degrees were also recorded in NSW on Friday and Saturday. White Cliffs' overnight low temperature on Saturday morning of 34.2 degrees also broke the 102-year-old record for the highest minimum in NSW for any month.
NSW and other parts of south-eastern Australia were the hottest in the world on Saturday, according to the Climate Reanalyzer website.
The city's maximum temperature will ease back to 27 degrees on Monday and 24 degrees on Tuesday - a rarity of a below-average day for what is likely to Sydney's hottest summer on record. Temperatures then start to climb back to the 30s for three days from Thursday, the bureau said.
So far in February, maximum temperatures are running more than four degrees above average, with similar anomalies for overnight conditions. This warm month follows Sydney's second-hottest December and hottest January in records that go back to 1858, the bureau data shows.
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