Parts of Western Sydney expected to reach 42 degrees today

ABC NEWS (Australia)

New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory are set to bake under heatwave conditions today. The weather bureau is warning parts of Western Sydney are heading for a scorching 42 degrees.

Transcript

00:00Temperatures peaking at over 40 degrees in several parts of Western Sydney, from the

00:07far west to the northwest and even the southwest at Campbelltown too.

00:11So these are serious temperatures and with that come serious warnings, particularly from

00:16the Bureau of Meteorology.

00:17The advice to people is to find shade where possible.

00:20If you're staying indoors, use curtains and blinds to limit the amount of direct sunlight

00:25coming into a home, as well as accessing cooling.

00:28Whether that be fans or air conditioning.

00:30Now if you don't have access to that, it's always worth trying to get to places that

00:33can keep you cool.

00:34That could be swimming and water holes, but also even shopping centres and libraries tend

00:39to have a functioning air con system that can keep people cool.

00:43And there is a note as well to be mindful of people within the community who may be

00:47more vulnerable.

00:48Those who are a bit older, younger or who also have compromised health conditions already.

00:54So what's driving this weather is essentially from the interior of the country, moving right

00:59from the south with a northerly breeze coming across.

01:02It's pushing this weather system right across outer western New South Wales and then into

01:07the coastal fringes as well.

01:09Now yesterday we saw Wilcannia see its record ever for December.

01:14More than 45 degrees was the peak temperature out there.

01:18As this weather though has moved easterly, we've seen some very high temperatures across

01:22several parts of the state, both north, south, inland and coastal.

01:27The good news is as a trough works its way across the state, we are seeing cooling conditions.

01:32They can also be observed down south in Victoria, for example, where the peak temperature is

01:37about 15 degrees lower today than it was yesterday and we are seeing cooling conditions come

01:42across.

01:43Now for Sydney itself, Jemma, well there is a southerly buster coming through in the evening

01:49and that should really drop off temperatures by as much as 10 degrees.

01:53People will be looking forward to it as it comes into the evening.

01:56Places that are remaining hot as well though include the Hunter Valley which is home to

01:59hundreds of thousands of people.

02:01Now fire danger is moderate across most of the state, which is a good sign and fire authorities

02:07broadly are quite happy here at RFS headquarters that there haven't been completely out of

02:12control or emergency level blazes, there's only a few fires that authorities are having

02:17to contend with.

02:18They are concerned, however, for later in the week after it cools initially, it will

02:23get warmer again and that's where we could see authorities tested somewhat as they hope

02:27to contain any bad weather such like we've seen in Victoria where we had some significant

02:32out of control fires.

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