A cold front is set to cross New South Wales this weekend, bringing a large temperature drop after a sweltering fortnight.

Over the last two weeks, daytime temperatures have been 5-12 degrees above average over nearly all of NSW, although nights have equally uncomfortable as well.

Broken Hill had their hottest December week from Christmas Day to New Years since records began in 1960. Averaged out, daytime temperatures were around 41-42 degrees. Broken Hill is continuing this trend in the first week of the New Year.

For northern parts of NSW, this heatwave did fail to reach the extremes seen 2017 but for more southern parts, it was the hottest since the Millennium Drought in 2002.

Despite the still hot temperatures to come in the next few days, over the weekend the strongest cold front since before Christmas will cross the state. This cool change is expected to knock about ten degrees off the mercury from one day to the next.

Along with this cool change, a few showers and storms are possible across the state. These storms are capable of producing damaging wind gusts that could cause areas of raised dust. A dust storm in Dubbo on New Years Eve resulted in the cancellation of the evening fireworks with wind gusts of 80-92 km/h recorded across central parts of NSW.

Unfortunately, the cool airmass behind this cold front will not linger over NSW and temperatures will warm again from next week. However, with the intensity of the inland heat having been reduced by the passage of the cold front, temperatures won’t return as high as in the first week.