If you thought Sydney had been warm over the past year or so, you’d be right.

Strong winds expected about parts of southeast New South Wales, including the wider Canberra region ahead of a cold front.

Another good beach day beckons for Sydney but not all stretches of sand are equal after the recent rains raise pollution risks.

Destination NSW's promise of a "warm country welcome" for visitors to Tibooburra has rarely rung as true, with the outback town ranked as the state's hottest place in what was the warmest year globally on record.

The flow-on effects of Fiji's Tropical Cyclone Winston put a dampener on the last weekend of summer, bringing dangerous surfing conditions and closing many Sydney beaches.

Sydney weather is tipped to warm for the weekend after a couple of milder days on Thursday and Friday. Peter Hannam reports.

Sydney is in for another wet and windy day on Friday as the clean-up continues after destructive storms tore through the city, felling large trees and powerlines, crushing cars and cutting power to thousands of homes on Thursday afternoon.

A windswept Canberra is in for a milder and calmer end to the week with above-average temperatures forecast for the weekend.

Unseasonal rains across central Australia are helping to fill Lake Eyre and are providing some unusual recreational activities for residents of Alice Springs.

Thunderstorms may have drenched Sydney and other parts of the state but many parched regions of the state largely missed out.