Hot and windy weather will elevate fire danger ratings in NSW on Thursday, before a stormy weather pattern sets in over some parts of the state.
A burst of warm and gusty north-westerly winds will pass over NSW on Thursday ahead of an approaching cold front.
This pulse of hot air will cause temperatures to reach the low forties over parts of the state's northern inland, central west and some areas along the coast and adjacent inland.
The combination of this heat with dry and gusty winds will cause Very High to Severe fire danger ratings across much of the state on Thursday.
Parts of the southern ranges and Illawarra/Shoalhaven could experience Extreme fire danger, including areas that have existing fires on the ground.
The NSW Rural Fire Service said there were still 64 fires burning in NSW on Tuesday evening, 16 of which were uncontained at the time.
Looking ahead, temperatures will moderate across much of NSW from Friday, although warm and humid air will linger over northern and eastern parts of the state through the end of the week.
This muggy air will interact with a near-stationary low pressure trough over the state's north east to produce daily showers and thunderstorms from Friday until at least early next week.
Some of these storms are likely to become severe.
January has seen a return of more typical wet and stormy weather patterns that were notably absent over NSW during December.
While almost all of the state registered less than 20 per cent of their monthly average rainfall in December, parts of southern and north-east NSW have already exceeded the monthly averages for January.
Unfortunately, this hasn't been the case everywhere and the rain that has fallen this month isn't enough to break the drought.
