Sydney and much of Australia’s east coast are bracing for a significant heatwave as a mass of hot air sweeps across the region.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe heatwave alert for several areas, including metropolitan Sydney, the Hunter, Illawarra, Southern Tablelands, and Snowy Mountains. An extreme heat warning is also in place for the south coast, effective from today through Saturday.

Forecasts indicate that maximum temperatures will hover between the high 20s and mid-30s, with a steady increase expected as the week progresses.

Today, Sydney residents can anticipate temperatures climbing to 30 degrees, accompanied by strong winds that will make for rather uncomfortable conditions.

The mercury is predicted to reach 34 degrees tomorrow, further escalating to 36 degrees on Saturday, when some late afternoon showers are anticipated to provide slight relief.

The entire state will be under a moderate to extreme fire warning from today until the end of the week.

Sydney, the South Coast and central and northern parts of NSW are under a high fire danger warning today and tomorrow.

The warning will elevate to extreme fire danger on Saturday when heatwave conditions peak before lowering back down on Sunday.

The conditions are being caused by a hot air mass that built over Western Australia at the start of the week and has since moved east. 

The system caused temperatures to reach 48 degrees in parts of central Australia, following an abnormally cold start to summer that saw snow fall in the mountains.

A cool change is expected to move across the east coast on Sunday and Monday.

Sydney will see a maximum temperature of 25 degrees with showers expected for most of the day on Sunday and 26 degrees and cloudy conditions on Monday.