Sydney has sweltered through one of its hottest December nights in recent memory and could be on track to break weather bureau records.
Just after 6am the CBD was sitting just above 27C and temperatures ranged from around 23C to 28C across the great Sydney area.
The city is looking at a scorching high of 38C on Wednesday, after peaking at 37.8C on Tuesday.
Weather experts had said if Sydney temperatures didn't drop below 26.3C overnight on Tuesdsay, it would be the warmest December night since 1868 - almost 150 years.
Temperatures had been forecast to remain in the high 20C area for most of the night.
The Bureau of Meteorology is expected to confirm whether or not records were broken on Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, the NSW Rural Fire Service has placed total fire bans on the Greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, lower and upper Central West regions.
Severe fire danger warnings are in place for Sydney and the Illawarra.
On Tuesday the hot weather left Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne sweltering together for the first time in more than half a century.
Temperatures peaked above 33C in all four capital cities for the first time since 1965, according to the Bureau of Meteorology
The temperatures across the nation's south east are being driven by hot, dry winds drawn down from northern Australia.
But a cool change is on the way for Sydney on Wednesday, while Melbourne, Canberra and Adelaide are already looking at much lower temperatures than Tuesday.
