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.

Hume Coal’s mine and rail project applications have been referred back to the Independent Planning Commission for a public hearing and determination within 12 weeks.

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

If Thursday hits its predicted peak it will be the ACT's longest March heat spell on record.

What weather will Santa deliver for Christmas Day?

Sydney's late-summer spell of unusual warmth shows little sign of making way for autumn with another week of mild to hot weather ahead.

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

A broad and unpredictable trough stretching across south-east Australia could inundate Canberra with a month's worth of rain this weekend.

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.

The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe thunderstorm warning for parts of Sydney.

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.

Temperatures are set to climb towards 40 degrees in coming days in Sydney's west with only cooling sea breezes likely to cap the mercury in the city.

The impacts of the monster El Nino in the Pacific are likely to intensify across much of Australia, including worsening drought and an elevated bushfire threat, after conditions that were nullifying its effects suddenly retreated.

Broken Hill's water reserves are down to about 4 per cent amid forecasts the town will be without water by the end of the year.

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

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.

Destruction of more than 200,000 hectares of threatened species habitat has been approved by the federal government in the past decade, a report shows.

Winter's grip will finally feel like it's loosened amid a "heat spike" this weekend - even if that season's squeeze was not a very tight one.

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

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