Canberrans sweltering through a hot and humid Sunday should brace themselves for an uncomfortably warm night.
Temperatures in the capital reached 36.4 degrees shortly after 3pm on Sunday, which was up from a top of 34 degrees on Saturday and the warmest day this month.
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How to stay cool in a heatwave
Sydney-siders share their tips for dealing with the record temperatures.
The mercury hit 36.1 degrees in Tuggeranong at 2.54pm.
Any hopes for a cooler evening were dashed by a forecast of a steamy 20 degrees overnight.
Weatherzone.com.au meteorologist Joel Pippard said while cloudy skies somewhat eased the scorching heat on Sunday, they also brought higher-than-normal humidity.
"Humidity has also been high for Canberra standards so it's felt a degree or two above the actual temperature," he said.
In Sydney, the mercury was tipped to reach 38 degrees in the city and 42 in the city's west on Sunday.
The heat was expected to break a 120-year record of the number of days surpassing 35 degrees in the summer season.
The ACT sweated through a record-breaking 11 days of maximum temperatures 35 degrees or above throughout January.
Mr Pippard said showers predicted from the south-west about 10pm would be accompanied by southerly winds "which will cool Canberra down a bit".
But he said the cooler winds would be short-lived, with thick cloud trapping heat overnight, and turn westerly before temperatures peaked about 35 degrees on Monday.
Easterly winds set to sweep through on Monday night would bring a brief reprieve from the heat and drop temperatures for a couple of days.
The mercury would top at 25 degrees on Tuesday and a slightly warmer 27 degrees on Wednesday, before it rose to a sticky 35 degrees on Thursday.
"We're looking at quite a rapid increase when those winds switch from easterly to north-westerly," Mr Pippard said.
"That's a very hot air mass that's moving through."
February's run of temperatures above 30 degrees would continue into the weekend, with a top of about 37 degrees on Friday and 39 degrees on Saturday amid blustery winds.
"That heat will likely be across all of NSW, it's quite widespread heat."
There was no cool change expected for Sunday, though temperatures were expected to be slightly cooler.
Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.