Sydney's warm start to June 'staggering' - Sydney Morning Herald

Sydney's series of unusually warm spells is continuing into winter, with the city forecast to break its record for consecutive days of 20 degree or hotter weather.

The Harbour City is tipped to reach at least 20 degrees each day until at least Tuesday, an eight-day sequence that would break the previous record of seven such days set back in 1921.

“This is staggering as Sydney's average for the first month of winter is just 17 degrees,” Rob Sharpe, a meteorologist with Weatherzone said. “This week would fit nicely into late April or early May.”

Sydney's autumn was also marked by long spells of warmer-than-average weather, with just six days of sub-20 degree maximums, breaking the previous record low of nine such days set in 1958. The warmer conditions have also been marked by drier-than-usual weather, particularly in regions west of the Great Divide.

For much of 2013, weather over southern Australia has dominated by big, slow-moving high-pressure systems that have blocked the cold fronts that usually break up the warmer conditions and bring rain.

Sea-surface temperatures around the country are generally much warmer than average so that rain fronts when they come are more likely to bring heavy rain as seen across South Australia, Victoria and NSW at the end of last week and into the weekend.

“When we get a cold front move through, we get more rain but the fronts are less frequent,” Josh Fisher, head meteorologist with Weatherzone, said.

Mr Fisher said Sydney can expect only limited rainfall for the next few weeks but the winter overall is likely to be wetter than average.

In the forecast period, showers are possible on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, according to the Bureau of Meteorology. Temperatures are tipped to rise to 23 degrees at Observatory Hill on Saturday, not far from the record June maximum of 24 degrees set on June 10, 1921, Weatherzone said.

The closely watched El Nino Southern Oscillation system over the Pacific remains in neutral so climate scientists are focused instead on the warmer-than-average waters of the eastern Indian Ocean.

Those models suggest the so-called Indian Ocean Dipole will turn negative, a signal typically associated with above-average rain in winter and spring over the country's south.

Weatherzone is owned by FairfaxMedia, publisher of this website.