Rising humidity across New South Wales will accompany heating during the coming week, contributing to widespread rainfall and keeping fire danger down.

Heat and fire danger will fail to reach the peaks of the last few hot spells, falling short of severe across most of the state.

Maximum temperatures will average three-to-seven degrees above the long-term norm, as high as the mid thirties in the west. 

The hottest days will be about five degrees cooler than last week’s hottest days with temperatures staying below about 40 degrees in the west and below about 35 degrees east of the ranges.

Despite it not getting as hot as last week, rising humidity will make next week feel nearly as hot.

The low pressure trough which brought extreme heat last week has since moved into Queensland where it is loading up with moisture before it moves back west and south across NSW.

The trough is unlikely to become intense but have enough instability and moisture to deliver showers and thunderstorms across a large area of the state during the coming week.

Showers and storms are starting in the northeast of the state and begin to move west then south from Friday and on the weekend then swing slowly east early next week.

The trough causing these showers and storms will be active enough and slow-moving enough for some places to receive some rainfall on four or five days.

Widespread falls of 15-to-30 millimetres will occur on the slopes, ranges and coast with potential for more than 60mm. Falls will be much patchier further west but bring up to about 20mm. Rainfall of this magnitude is badly needed to fill up dams and get summer crops going. 

For most of northern, western and southern NSW this should be the wettest week since August, and for some the wettest since early winter, autumn or even beyond last summer.

At the end of next week, a front should begin dragging the warm, humid and thundery weather north, cooling and drying out the state for a several days.

– Weatherzone