While it is often hotter in western Sydney and cooler near the coast, today’s heat is being equally felt across the city.
Professor Sebastian Pfautsch, an urban heat expert from Western Sydney University, said the overcast conditions meant that the shade from trees or the cooling effects of lighter roofs had no effect.
Jacob Scott and Angel Balzke, from Fairfield, brave the oppressive heat with a picnic on the Georges River on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy
“On a day like today where we don’t have the impact of direct sunshine on our urban environment, these temperature differences that we would normally find are muted, and everybody has to deal with the heat,” Pfautsch said.
“It’s hot everywhere because what we’re dealing with is one big air mass of hot air pushing in from Central Australia, originated from the Pilbara, coming across the country, being really, really hot.”
Pfautsch said driving from Parramatta to northern Sydney would usually mean a drop in temperature of four or five degrees because of the elevation and tree canopy. Today it was only half a degree different.
The feels-like temperature was about one degree cooler than the actual temperature, according to the weather bureau, because of wind and low humidity.
Sydneysiders at Redleaf pool take a dip on Wednesday.Credit: Sam Mooy / SMH
Humidity was only 21 per cent at 3pm because of the dry air coming from inland. It is expected to rise 41 per cent tonight, but this would coincide with the cool southerly buster.
“It’s not humid heat that you would see in the tropics like Brisbane and Darwin and Cairns, this is dry heat,” Pfautsch said.
“If you go outside and it feels like an oven, that is dry heat. It’s much more bearable than humid heat, where even if it was seven degrees cooler than today here in Sydney, we would still find that oppressive.”
