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.

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.

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.

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.