Hot spell - Western Sydney 5 to 7 January 2009:
Over the past 3 days the maximum daily temperature at Blacktown has been in the order of:-
38.9C on 5/1/2009.
37.7C on 6/1/2009.
38.5C on 7/1/2009.
Taken from the Prospect weather station. Prospect is approximately 3 km south east from where I live. It highly likely that it reached 38C in the centre of Blacktown on the 6/1/2009 given that nearby surrounds actually topped 38C to 40C on all 3 days.
In Penrith the maximum temperature over the same period was:-
39C on 5/1/2009.
41.6C on 6/1/2009
40.5C on 7/1/2009.
The strongest burst of heat to affect the Sydney basin in almost 2 years has been limited mainly to Campbelltown, Penrith, Richmond and Blacktown (Certainly west of Parramatta) or areas where the sea breeze had less of an impact.
Interesting between 1 pm and 3 pm 7/1/2009, it was around 25C to 26C along parts of Sydney Harbour due to the sea breeze but over parts of western Sydney west of Parramatta, maximum temperatures were topping the 38C to 40C mark.
The highest maximum temperature in NSW 7/1/2009 appears to have been Narranderra and Wagga Wagga on 42C and nearby regions topping out between 38C and 41C.
As at 6pm 7/1/2009, the cooler southerly wind change was located around Batemans Bay thus for coastal areas, this will end the current hot spell.
Of interest on both mornings of 6/1/2009 and 7/1/2009 between midnight and 6 am, very weak shallow SE changes or SE sea breezes affected much of eastern Sydney. While they were shallow, they were strong enough to generate a layer of very low stratus cloud at around sunrise that burnt off after 7 am. I am not sure if they were sea breezes or weak southerly changes but it is something that I have not seen occur in previous years. The cool changes that occurred on both mornings at around the same time were not forecast the previous day.
Harley Pearman
