Australia

A new September record for New South Wales has been broken and total fire bans remain in place across half of the state as an unseasonal heatwave takes hold.

In NSW, the in what is a new September record for New South Wales.

It is going to be exceptionally hot this weekend in New South Wales, with much of New Zealand benefiting from it on Sunday and/or Monday.

Australia's weekend heat wave is being forecast to break September records, with temperatures soaring as high as 40 degrees Celsius inland and even Sydney may hit 36C.

The Australian alps are having their best snow season in nearly two decades and the base just keeps getting deeper.

Snowy Hydro's weekly snow depth readings at Spencers Creek in NSW are a reliable way to keep track of Australia's natural snowpack.

It's warm in Sydney this Wednesday morning with the city reaching the mid 20s before 8am and the high is in the low 30s - now that warm airflow is crossing the Tasman and will help lift temperatures in eastern areas into the low to mid 20s by Thursday.

Most of Australia is cloud-free and it's allowing temperatures to rise in the interior.  A large ridge of high pressure extending across eastern and central Australia is allowing the sun to shine across much of the country.

This year's bushfire season has the potential to be worse than usual in parts of NSW.

A number of factors influence the potential for fires, including the amount, location and timing of rainfall leading up to the fire season, as well as temperature and rainfall outlooks for the months ahead.

Winter in Australia this year was hot and dry with the average maximum temperature up nearly 2 degrees Celsius above the long-term trend.  The 2017 winter was the hottest since 1910 when national records began, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM). 

It's a cool and showery start to spring in Australia's southwest today after Perth came close to its first wetter-than-average winter in 17 years.

WeatherWatch.co.nz was recently sent this video from Air New Zealand Captain Matthew Harrington, showing a view most passengers onboard usually only see from the side.

Qantas has issued a challenge to the world's largest plane makers: Build us a jet that can fly from Sydney to London or New York -- without stopping.

The Australian airline wants a Boeing 777X or Airbus A350 that can undertake the epic routes from the eastern cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane by 2022.