At Nowra, temperatures dropped from over 39 degrees to 19 degrees in just a matter of hours, thanks to the southerly change. 

Ulladulla reached top temperatures of 35.3 at 2pm, before falling to 20.2 degrees at 7pm. Kiama reached its peak at 4pm, with temperatures of 28.4, dropping to 19.8 by 8pm. 

While the cool change was welcome, damaging wind gusts of up to 82km/h were measured at Nowra, 74km/h at Ulladulla and 95km/h at Kiama. 

The wild winds brought down a number of trees in the area, with the State Emergency Service responding to 38 calls for assistance in the South Coast region. 

An SES spokesperson said most jobs related to fallen trees and damaged roofs but that there wan’t any major incidents. 

The blustery cool change created challenging conditions for firefighters, who were battling an put of control blaze west of Nowra at Illaroo. 

The fire broke out just before 11am, when temperatures were still continuing to rise. Crews, accompanied by waterboming aircrafts worked through the night to try and contain the blaze. 

At 9am Firday morning the blaze had burnt 37 hectares and was ‘being controlled’ by crews.