Canberra is set to feel the heat over the weekend, with temperatures reaching 35 and a heatwave warning for the South Coast.
Bureau of Meteorology spokesperson Patch Clapp said there will be a widespread high-pressure system over all of New South Wales and ACT.
"We are seeing that heat sort of build through to the sort of the east of New South Wales and to Canberra across the weekend particularly," Mr Clapp said.
"We see the chance for the heat to really build up inland and then we see it sort of get moved across the state towards the east."
Temperatures are expected to rise to 33 degrees on Friday, 35 degrees on Saturday, 30 degrees on Sunday and 33 degrees on Monday, before cooling on Tuesday.
"At this stage, we are seeing the hottest temperature being Saturday for Canberra. Expecting to see sort of 35 degrees for much of the ACT, maybe just a couple of degrees or two cooler for the sort of the hillier areas, but expected to see that 35," Mr Clapp said.
There is no heatwave warning for the ACT yet, but anyone heading to the South Coast could feel severe heatwave conditions.
"At this stage not going to see a heatwave warning for the ACT itself. We are seeing it for the south-east coast districts. So if people are heading to the coast over the weekend, places like Batemans Bay, we are sort of expecting to experience severe heatwave conditions," Mr Clapp said.
"It's more just for people with some sort of those underlying health conditions and vulnerabilities that we want to be aware of those conditions. But we'll see that heat all the way up to the coast across the weekend."
Despite Saturday set to be sweltering, there is still a chance of a storm.
"There is a slight chance of some storm activity as well, on Saturday, across the ACT. So this could be a little bit of storm activity, but not likely to be too much in the way of rainfall out of it," Mr Clapp said.
"More likely to just be windy and a very slight chance of seeing some hail but more just wind, windy thunderstorms that we might see on Saturday, in the afternoon.
"It's not really until Tuesday that we see the chance of any moisture again and not really until Wednesday that we start to see a bit of relief from the warmer temperatures.
"So we are seeing around that sort of 30 degree mark right through until Tuesday and then Wednesday dropping back down to sort of the lower 20s."
Canberra's fire risk is set at moderate currently and will rise to high risk on Saturday, before returning to moderate fire risk on Sunday.
ACT emergency services advise Canberrans to stay up to date, be ready to act if there is a fire and monitor conditions and warnings.
We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.
