Despite the vast amounts of rainfall falling across the parched southern parts of our continent, a hot air mass is still lingering over western parts of New South Wales and Queensland. A low pressure system laden with tropical moisture is continuing to feed an associated trough over South Australia. Over the past few days, this low and trough has broken up a lot of the heat which has been lingering over central Australia. However, clear skies over inland parts of NSW and QLD have allowed heat to continue to filter into the region. This trough is expected to continue moving east bringing significant rain to western NSW, northern Victoria and into southwestern QLD over the weekend. However, dry and gusty northwesterly winds ahead of this trough are likely. Over the past few days, areas in northwestern NSW and southwestern QLD have seen maximum temperatures in the low forties, including 44 degrees in Birdsville and Thargomindah yesterday. With this heat set to continue, gusty northerly winds in the order of 60-70 km/h ahead of the trough will result in a Very high to severe fire danger rating. As the low pressure trough continues east, much of QLD and NSW can look forward to cooler conditions with some more rain giving the region a drink. Temperatures in the coming week will remain warm, around the high- thirties, although significant heat is not expected in the near future. A hot airmass will begin to build next week over Western Australia's Interior, however there is no indication of this heat returning to eastern parts of the nation in the coming fortnight.