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Short Sunday drive to escape record heat in NSW

Brett Dutschke, Monday November 24, 2014 - 11:10 AEDT

On Sunday, record November heat scorched inland New South Wales while much of the coast was as much as 20 degrees cooler, in some places this was only an hour's drive away.

Temperatures reached the mid-forties in north-western and central-western NSW but also as far east as the Hunter and Sydney, just a short drive to the much cooler beaches.

At times during the afternoon there was a temperature differential of as much as 20 degrees between the beaches and western parts of the Hunter, Sydney and Illawarra, about as extreme as it gets.

In the Hunter and Sydney it reached 45 degrees in Cessnock and Richmond but on the beaches, less than 50km away it was as cool as 25 degrees. In the Illawarra while Campelltown was baking in 40-degree heat, Port Kembla was a cool 21 degrees.

It was no surprise that the roads, beaches and nearby car parks were chock-a-block for most of the day.

One of the factors in the beaches' coolness was a rare sea fog which shielded out the sun from about 10am until well into the afternoon. This fog developed as northwesterly winds pushed warm, humid air from the inland out to a relatively cool sea, where it condensed to form a layer of low cloud. Wind then turned easterly to take that low cloud to the coast, where it stayed for hours. Sea fogs do not occur every year on the NSW coast but this is the most likely time of year for them to form. It gave beach-goers a sample of a phenomena that is much more common on the west coast of America, including California.

Some of those at the beach would have been blissfully unaware that just a short distance away temperatures were 18 degrees above average and heat records were being broken.

It was the hottest November day in 74 years of records at Cessnock (44.5 degrees), 75 years of records in Richmond (45.3 degrees) and 127 years of records at Cobar (46 degrees).

A low pressure trough which dragged that heat across the state from central Australia is edging north, taking the heat with it and bringing rain and thunderstorms. On Monday, with help from rain and storms, the state will generally be five-to-10 degrees cooler than Sunday. The hottest area, around Walgett will only reach about 41 degrees. On Tuesday temperatures will drop by another five-to-10 degrees.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2014

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