"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.

There are more than 4000 uninhabitable homes across NSW as people begin to wonder what to do amid the mammoth clean-up effort.

NSW will likely cop its third buffeting from an east coast low in five weeks but there is some good news.

Canberra hasn't seen any heatwaves this summer, but that doesn't mean it hasn't been a hot one.