The long weekend in Sydney was a mix of cool, showery conditions with some intense heat, topped off with some pleasant sunny days. Looking ahead to the last week of school holidays, we can expect much cooler conditions with persistent showers later in the week bringing some decent rainfall totals.

Today should reach a top of 23 degrees with a persistent seabreeze increasing humidity, although it should still be a nice day to kick off the new week.

As a change passes over Sydney Tuesday afternoon, the cooler air associated with this front will drop temperatures. Strong westerly winds will develop in the evening on Tuesday along with the first rainfall of this week.

An extended period of below average temperatures should then follow, lasting the whole week. The coldest day should should be on Friday, the maximum forecast to dip to 17 degrees, which should be Sydney's lowest maximum since mid September.

If you are looking to spend the last week of the school holidays outside and in the sun, your best chance would be on Wednesday and Thursday. A few brief and light showers are possible with onshore winds, but conditions should be mostly dry and clear due to a ridge of high pressure along the coast. Both these days are forecast to reach 19 degrees, although showers are expected to develop late on Thursday.

Most of the rainfall should come on Friday and Saturday with a trough extending down into New South Wales. Over the whole week, Sydney could see more than 50mm of rain, possibly more in the Central Coast and Hunter regions.

At the beginning of next week, we should see temperatures beginning to rise again, with some very nice conditions expected to start off the new term!