Heatwave conditions over the weekend lead to the highest ever minimum temperature recorded at the Mudgee Airport weather station.
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In the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday, February 2, the lowest that the mercury had dipped to was 26°C, which was around 4am and at a point when the humidity was still at about 50 per cent.
The previous record for the location - which also occurred during a February date - was 25.6°C, back in 2011.
In addition to being a new benchmark, the figure is over 10 degrees above the average overnight temp for the second month of the year in Mudgee, which is 15.5°C.
The reason for the record-breaking overnight heat can be put down to the heatwave conditions at the time and the airmass that had been brought down from the tropics, bringing heat and humidity that affected much of southeastern Australia.
And indeed the night was sat between two days that peaked at 40.9°C on Saturday and 41°C on Sunday, and coming off a run that included Friday which hit 40.8°C.
By the beginning of the new week the heat had eased, with Monday only getting to 32°C.
The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts that rainfall for the week of February 3-9 is likely to be above average for parts of eastern NSW, with temperatures forecast to peak below 30°C for the remainder of the week in Mudgee.
Longer term though, the BOM outlook points to the likelihood of warmer days and nights for the February to April period, with the chance of heatwaves occurring remaining high.
Rainfall could go either way, with the chances of the three months being wetter or drier than average being equal.
Even though it's only early days for 2020, the year-to-date local rainfall figure is only about a quarter of the norm (33.4mm so-far vs 140.7mm average).
