Mercury hits 43.6C in Canberra and 48.9C in Penrith, making it one of the hottest places in the world

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Canberra and the outer western Sydney suburb of Penrith have broken temperature records that have stood for 80 years.

The mercury climbed to 48.9C in Penrith and 43.6C in Canberra on Saturday afternoon, the hottest temperatures recorded in those areas. The Canberra mark later rose above 44C.

Prof Ray Wills (@ProfRayWills) NB: daily *average* temperature



Penrith was hottest place on Earth today

and

Hottest ever day recorded in Greater Sydney@BOM_au recorded maximum temperature of 48.9C at 3pm

Previous record of 47.3C set in January 2018 pic.twitter.com/nUfYt4emGh

Penrith set a new record for the hottest temperature in the Sydney basin, beating the previous mark of 47.8C recorded in Richmond in 1939. The new mark also made it one of the hottest places in the world on Saturday afternoon.

The previous Canberra record was 42.8C at the now-closed Acton observation site in 1939.

Bureau of Meteorology Australian Capital Territory (@BOM_ACT) #Canberra has reached 43.6C—a new hottest temperature record for any month. The previous Canberra records are 42.2C at Canberra Airport in 1968 and 42.8C at the now-closed Acton site in 1939. Observations at: https://t.co/8mMXbj9VGR

“We’ve seen many places close to the coast exceed 40C over the southeast and lots of places up on the ranges as well,” Bureau of Meteorology acting NSW manager Jane Golding said.

“We’ve seen many sites in western Sydney above 45C and places quite close to the city above 40C.”

Golding said hot and dry north-westerly winds had increased over south-eastern NSW on Saturday, before a gusty southerly change started moving up the coast. It was expected to reach Sydney by midnight.

Golding warned there was a heightened risk of undesirable storm activity with a severe thunderstorm warning issued for parts of NSW.

“We are seeing a very unstable atmosphere and there is a heightened risk of storm activity particularly over the far south of the state and the coastal strip up towards Sydney,” she said.

“Any storms that develop today, unfortunately, we’re not expecting them to bring rain but they would bring those gusty winds and that erratic wind behaviour that’s particularly concerning near fire grounds.”