Guy Dixon, 24 Jan 2015, 1:14 AM UTC
Inland parts of NSW sweat through the night
Parts of inland New South Wales sweated through a warm and muggy night under cloudy skies.
Temperatures struggled to fall yesterday evening over parts of the New South Wales' Central West Slopes and Plains, South West Slopes and Plains and Riverina districts. After the mercury rose well into the mid-thirties during the day, high humidity and increasing cloud cover made for a disturbed night of sleep.
Wagga Wagga only fell to 23.4 degrees overnight, over seven degrees above average. Nearby, the same struggle was felt. Minimum temperatures at Young, Griffith, Temora, West Wyalong, Condobolin, Yanco and Narrandera all ran more than five degrees above average.
This muggy warmth was even felt as far east as the Sydney Basin with Bankstown feeling their warmest night since December 2012 at 22.7 degrees. High moisture content within the airmass also exacerbated this warmth making it harder for our bodies to lose heat through evaporative cooling. The relative humidity at Bankstown before sunrise was 80%.
To make matters worse, opening a window to get some cross ventilation was not an option at times. There were periods throughout the early hours of this morning where the wind fell completely calm.
The risk of further warm nights will dissipate as a southerly change and cooler airmass moves over southeastern parts of the state from Sunday evening in to Monday.
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