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Sydney, the Hunter and two other regions of NSW will have total fire bans on Wednesday as the temperature spikes into the 30s and winds pick up.
The ban comes as 115 firefighters battled to bring an out-of-control grassfire at Beacon Hill to a halt using water tankers and back-burning near houses in the area.
NSW fire ban ahead of temperature spike
An out-of-control grassfire in Sydney's north keeps firefighters busy ahead of a total fire ban across parts of NSW. Courtesy Network Ten.
The blaze came within range of homes and Oxford Falls Grammar School but, by mid afternoon on Tuesday, Rural Fire Service crews and water bombing aircraft were holding it at bay.
The conditions which helped the Beacon Hill grassfire spread are only a prelude to what could be a far more dangerous on Wednesday, an RFS spokesman told AAP.
"[Those regions] have been issued with severe fire danger rating with forecast conditions of temperatures in the mid-30s and winds gusting up to 75km/h from the north west," the spokesman said.
"It could be a bad day - given the conditions we've had so far haven't been close to that."
Unusually early bans
The city is forecast to come close to challenging its warmest day this early in September on record, with the Bureau of Meteorology expecting the mercury to climb to 32 degrees.
That's about 12 degrees above the average for September. Inland suburbs will be similarly warm after places such as Richmond topped 30 degrees on Tuesday.
Sydney has only had one day of 32 degrees or warmer in the first half of September, and that was a 32.2-degree reading on 13 September, 2009, Blair Trewin, senior climatologist at the bureau, said.
The NSW Rural Fire Service said total fire bans will be in place for the Greater Sydney, Greater Hunter, north coast and north-west region of the state.
Crews from the RFS and Fire & Rescue NSW will be ready to respond to any new outbreaks should they occur, including calling in aircraft assistance.
The total fire ban, the first for the 2017-18 season, will probably last one day in the Sydney region but places further north may have restrictions for a couple of days, Ben Shepherd, an RFS spokesman, said.
"For those fires that were contained in the past few days, obviously we'll be monitoring them closely," Inspector Shepherd said, adding that any unintended fires "should be reported immediately".
The unusually early fire bans come after NSW posted its driest winter in 15 years with about half the usual rainfall. Fire authorities earlier this month predicted an early and active bushfire season for most of east coast Australia.
A 30-degree day on Wednesday would be about four weeks earlier than the first such day in 2016.
Predicted wind strengths were another reason for the total fire ban declaration, Inspector Shepherd said.
The winds "start to build in the afternoon, carrying through to Thursday morning," Lachlan Maher, a meteorologist with Weatherzone, said.
A front will cross the state, drawing in warm air from central Australia ahead of it.
"Once the front passes, it'll just be a slow cool overnight into Thursday," Mr Maher said.
Recent conditions have been pretty dry across NSW which "would certainly help increase the intensity of fires", he said.
Dry outlook
While temperatures are forecast to drop significantly on Thursday for Sydney, there is chance of much rain for the coming week. (See the bureau's eight-day rainfall forecast below, out to next Wednesday.)
As of Tuesday morning, there were about 80 fires burning in NSW, with about 20 of them uncontained, Inspector Shepherd said.
September is typically a transition month weatherwise, with cold fronts vying with bursts of inland heat being drawn south.
The most recent similarly warm day this early in the month for Sydney was 31.6 degrees on September 10, 2013, Weatherzone said.
Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.
with AAP