The region is heading for its hottest ever January for overnight temperatures with little sign the unusual warmth across eastern Australia is about to lose its grip.
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Temperatures across the Illawarra are expected to reach the mid-30s on Tuesday, with Wollongong, Kiama and Nowra tipped to reach 35 degrees and Albion Park 36 degrees.
Overnight temperatures dropped to 22 degrees in Wollongong before rising again early morning hitting 29 degrees at 4.54am and just under 33 degrees at 8am.
Overnight temperatures at Albion Park hit a low of 23 degrees at 1.30am, climbing to 29 degrees at 3.22am and hitting 34.9 degrees at 8am.
In Kiama, the mercury dipped to 22 degrees overnight before rising to 34 degrees at 8.30am on Tuesday.
The Bureau of Meteorology predicts a hot and humid day with a thunderstorm, and winds reaching 50km/h expected on Tuesday afternoon.
A southerly buster should move in later in the day, bringing "a very sudden drop in temperatures", Rob Sharpe, a meteorologist with Weatherzone, said.
There is a strong wind warning for the Illawarra coast.
Fire danger risks have also been elevated with "very high ratings" for coastal regions from the north coast down to the Illawarra/Shoalhaven region, including Sydney and Newcastle.
Beaches, normally natural lures on days of intense heat, may need to be entered with care. Swimmers are being urged to watch out for bluebottles after the stingers began washing up on coastal beaches en masse, forcing temporary closures at many sites in recent days.
The latest bout of heat - with more building from Saturday - is likely to push Sydney's temperatures toward record levels for January. In 2016, the city completed its hottest year in records going back to 1858.
The most likely record to fall is Sydney's hottest January for minimums. The average overnight temperature so far this month is sitting above the 21-degree mark set in 1991.
Overnight, the city reached a low of 24.5 degrees in the city just after midnight, while Penrith dropped to a minimum of 25.4 degrees at 3am, the bureau said.
There's little relief in sight, with minimums of 22-23 tipped for each day into early next week.
Maximum temperatures are also among the hottest on record, although it will take exceptional heat over the remaining week in January to dislodge 1896 from the record perch. That January notched an average top of 29.5 degrees, the hottest for any month in Sydney, the bureau said.
"All that heat has been sitting in the east", bringing unusual warmth over NSW and Queensland in particular, Mr Sharpe said.
While most days over the next week will have a low-intensity heatwave over parts of NSW, the greatest extent of the warmth will be for the Friday-Sunday period when half the country bakes, the bureau said. (See chart below, including patches of severe heatwave conditions.)
"Looking at the numbers [of bluebottles] that were around on Sunday, even just the tide coming in and out will drag some of those back in and back out," Rob Townsend, the Life Sciences Manager at Manly SEA LIFE Sanctuary, said.
"Often when you see them in that kind of number, it does take a while for them to dissipate."
A team of scientists at the University of Sydney in 2013 examined a range of methods to treat jellyfish and bluebottle stings, and found that hot water was the best way to treat the pain.
With Megan Levy
Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.