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

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

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.

The elderly are heading up north, and we have only their Instagram posts to warm us.

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