What weather will Santa deliver for Christmas Day?

A "strangely warm southerly" is sweeping across Sydney today with little relief from the heat at beaches in NSW and Queensland because of Cyclone Winston causing large, dangerous and powerful surf.

Parts of Canberra have received more than the city's June average rainfall in less than two days with more rain on the way.

Antonio Guterres says the “naive optimism” of the Glasgow talks is colliding with a failure to deal with climate, as scientists grapple with global heat waves.

South-east Queensland is mopping up after being battered by a line of intense thunderstorms that cut power to more than 27,000 homes and businesses.

A car reportedly crashed into a fallen tree on Streeton Drive. 

Gusty winds buffeted parts of Sydney late on Tuesday as a band of dry thunderstorms moved across parts of eastern NSW.

Canberrans will face one of the worst fire danger days of the bushfire season on Tuesday as the temperature soars past 30 degrees amid dry, windy conditions.

Hundreds of homes have been evacuated in southern California as heavy rains and wind lash the drought-stricken area.

Santa looks set to bring Melburnians a mild and mostly sunny Christmas Day.

Melbourne is bracing for flooding as a huge storm moves across the state, with falls of 50 milimetres in the city's north-east suburbs likely on Saturday morning.

Slow-moving Typhoon Hagupit has weakened as it churns across the central Philippines islands, easing fears of widespread mass destruction, but officials warn the storm could still bring severe flooding to the low-lying capital Manila.

A high-pressure system "as big as Australia" will bring Melbourne's warmest patch of weather in more than five months, while most of the country is likely to go for a week with little rain.

This weekend is set to be another warm, muggy one - and next weekend may be much the same.

Canberra hasn't seen any heatwaves this summer, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been a hot one.

"Mate, I lost about 100 heartbeats I reckon in that split second, and got a few more grey hairs."

Robert Frost once pondered whether the world would end in fire, or in ice. They weren't heralding the world's end, but this week fire and ice both reared their heads across the state.

Canberrans can expect a cool change from Monday after a warm and windy weekend.

NSW will likely cop its third buffeting from an east coast low in five weeks but there is some good news.

The Bureau of Meteorology has warned of possible flash flooding in the Queanbeyan and Molonglo rivers on Friday.

Brisbane's sweaty masses are set for a slight reprieve leading into the weekend, with the high temperatures and sticky humidity both set to become that little more bearable.

Brisbane is in for a wet start to the week, with storms likely to hit the city on Monday and rain predicted for the following four days.

In a town regarded as one of the world's hottest, Marble Bar locals are still reminded to take care as the mercury hit 48 degrees Celsius on Monday.

Global temperature records continue to tumble, with August easily the hottest in 124 years of data, Japan's Meteorological Agency says.

Residents in north-eastern NSW advised not to travel as heavy rains from another east coast low lift flood risks all the way down to the Hunter.