Sydney tipped for first 30°C of the season this Saturday
The opening week of spring will feature two rounds of warmth in Sydney, with the city forecast to have its first 30°C day of the season this Saturday.
Two low pressure troughs passing over NSW this week will cause westerly winds to push warm inland air towards the coast. These warm westerlies will cause two rounds of warm weather in Sydney, first on Wednesday and Thursday and then again on Saturday.
While this warm weather pattern is not unusual in spring, it is being supported this week by a negative Southern Annular Mode (SAM) – a broad-scale Southern Ocean climate driver that promotes dry and warm westerly winds over eastern Australia. This creates an opportunity for Sydney to experience warmth this weekend that it usually doesn’t see until later in the season.
How warm will Sydney get this week?
Sydney’s temperature is forecast to reach 27°C this Wednesday and Thursday, under the influence of warm westerly winds that should be strong enough to negate sea breezes on both days.
Friday will be cooler as winds swing onshore, with the city currently forecast to reach a top of about 23°C.
Saturday will then see a return of the warm westerly winds, allowing the city’s temperature to reach around 29–30°C. This is well above the city’s September average maximum temperature of 20°C.
Image: Forecast wind and temperature at 4pm AEST on Saturday, September 5, 2026. Source: Weatherzone.
If it does reach 30°C in Sydney on Saturday, this would be the city’s first 30°C day in six months. It would make Saturday only the 5th time in 168 years of records that Sydney has hit 30°C this early in the warming season. In records dating back to 1859, Sydney’s Observatory Hill weather station has only reached 30°C three times in August and once during the first five days of September.
Outside Sydney, large areas of eastern and northern NSW will also be affected by unusually high early-spring warmth in the next few days. Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour are both forecast to reach 31°C on Thursday, while temperatures could rise to around 34°C in the state’s northwest on Saturday.