A look back at summer 2016/2017 in the Illawarra – in photos

Record heat, a near-record cold night and isolated large rainfall totals – the season was a mixed bag weather-wise for the Illawarra and South Coast.

A continued run of warmer-than-usual weather to start 2017 saw the record books rewritten at Wollongong’s two weather stations.

Above-average minimum and maximum temperatures were above the January mean at both observation points - Albion Park and Bellambi.

Higher-than-usual temperatures were also experienced across the Greater Wollongong area in December; and, while February’s figures are yet to be finalised, month-to-date data suggests a similar trend.

It might be hard to fathom, but summer's hottest and coldest days at Bellambi were in fact just a couple of days apart.

A summer snapshot of Wollongong’s weather shows the mercury climbed to its three-month high at the coastal suburb on December 13 (38.0 degrees), before dropping to 34.6 the following day and then plummeting to just 18.3 degrees for summer’s coldest day (December 15).

Bellambi recorded 15 days of temperatures of 30 degrees or above this summer, with just two of those over 35 degrees - December 13 (38 degrees) and January 24 (35.6 degrees).

While it felt hot at times, thanks to the high humidity, no temperatures of 40 degrees or above were recorded at the coastal weather station.

Inland, Albion Park sweated through 28 days with temps of 30 or higher. On 11 of those occasions the mercury surpassed 35 degrees. However, the 40-degree barrier was only broken on one occasion - 41.7 on January 30 (the suburb’s hottest day for the season).

Nowra had the most days over 40 degrees during the December-to-January period, cracking that mark three times - January 17 (41.6), January 30 (43.2 - hottest day of summer) and February 10 (42.8).

Despite summer being synonymous for its heat, and this one being hotter than normal overall, one February night proved to be an anomaly.

Overnight temperatures that dropped to near-record February lows in parts of the Illawarra no doubt had many reaching for their doonas on the morning of February 21. 

The minimum to 9am was 10.7 degrees in Albion Park and 15.7 at Bellambi. 

Albion Park’s minimum was just one degree off its coldest February night on record – 9.7 degrees in 2014.

In the Southern Highlands, Moss Vale shivered through its coolest night in 12 years of records, dropping to 5.7 degrees (previous low – 6.3 in 2014).

After two months of drier-than-usual weather, a rather wet February certainly washed the cobwebs from Illawarra and South Coast rain gauges.

Albion Park was drenched by 308.8mm during summer as a whole. Almost 250mm of that fell in February alone, including a single daily total of 112mm in the 24 hours to 9am on February 8.

To put that hefty 24-hour total in perspective, Albion Park had just 60.8mm of rain for the whole of December and January combined.

Looking ahead, lingering are showers forecast to drench the Illawarra for the next week.

Rainfall has been recorded at Albion Park and Bellambi daily since Sunday and the Bureau of Meteorology has forecast a high to very-high chance of showers in Wollongong every day until Monday.

There's the chance of a storm each day, as well, the bureau says.