The remarkable global heat for 2015 is not yet over and already forecasters are predicting next year will be hotter again - marking three years in a row of record annual warmth.

Prepare for hotter days and a worsening drought - a ''substantial'' El Nino event is underway.

The trough that brought a series of storms to Canberra on Saturday is expected to affect the region until Monday.

Australia's main ski resorts are anxious for a change in the weather, with a lack of recent snow falls limiting their operations just as school holidays loom in NSW and Victoria.

Sydney will likely come close to notching its hottest day this late in the summer for 12 years - and there won't be much early relief.

They said it would never fill. Now it has spilled.

Enjoy the sunshine at the start of this week, as the the grey clouds and rain that have become all-too-familiar visitors in recent times are due to roll in again come Wednesday.

Wednesday night may be on the cool side for Queensland visitors to the opening State of Origin match at Homebush but the overall conditions could hardly be better for football.

After 16 years of observations, the world's new lightning capital has been named.

Unless you've been inside a 200kmh blast of wind it's hard to imagine the tremendous natural force behind it.

Going to Sea World isn't a walk in the park for the animals kept in captivity, say campaigners.

May and autumn will come close to being a record warm ones for Sydney, the state and the rest of Australia as the giant El Nino added a hot overlay to temperatures that are rising in the background here and in most parts of the world.

Sydney's run of unusually cold mornings will extend well into next week as mostly clear skies combine with light winds and a frigid air mass to sink the mercury.

Sydneysiders can expect rising humidity in coming days, making the apparently endless summer seem a bit more uncomfortable.

Temperatures in Canberra reached 38.5 degrees as the region's first heatwave of the year peaked on Wednesday.

Sydneysiders look set for a soggy commute to end the working week, as an intense low pressure system off the coast delivers widespread showers, wind and large and powerful surf conditions to the city.

Sydney awoke to a frigid Saturday morning, with temperatures dipping to a brisk 7.3 degrees in the CBD at 7:15am.

Canberrans still wringing themselves out from the wettest June on record shouldn't put away their gumboots just yet.

A fierce blast of winter has prompted a severe weather warning for most of southern NSW, including Sydney.

Sydneysiders got down to cleaning up their damaged properties on Friday after destructive winds accompanying a sudden cool change broke up the 40-degree heat a day earlier.

A severe storm is expected to narrowly miss Canberra on Monday afternoon.

Can't make it to the beach because of work? Don't fret, there's some excellent weather coming this weekend.

It will snow in the ACT tonight as a cold front moves over the region, the Bureau of Meteorology says.

Sydney in for scorching weather on Friday as a slow-moving high-pressure system steers a huge hot air mass formed over Australia's Red Centre to the country's south-east.

Unprecedented rain in Japan unleashed heavy floods that tore houses from their foundations, uprooted trees and forced thousands from their homes.