The welcome warmth – which arrived in the region on Sunday –follows what has been a rather chilly start to September.

Average maximums, for the first nine days of the month, at Wollongong’s Bellambi and Albion Park weather stations are running and 2.5 and 2.8 degrees below the September norm.

Daily maximums at Bellambi struggled to just 13.4 and 13.5 degrees on September 2 and 3, respectively – just shy of the month’s coldest day on record (13.0 degrees in 2011).

Since then, temperatures have hovered in the mid-to-high teens. However, Sunday’s sunny top of 22.3 degrees at Bellambi was an anomaly – and a couple of degrees warmer than originally forecast by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Sunday’s sunshine was just a taste of what’s to come this week – with temperatures tipped to climb as high as five degrees above the average for this time of year.

The warmth will build from Monday, when the temperature should reach 19 degrees in Wollongong and 21 at Albion Park.

As of 12.20pm on Monday, it was 17.6 degrees at Bellambi and 18.7 in Albion Park.

Wednesday will be the week’s warmest day – with maximums of 25 degrees forecast in the city and 26 inland.

At this stage, the start of the weekend should also bring similarly-warn temps of 24 degrees in Wollongong and 26 at Albion Park.

At this stage, the only mention of rain on the forecast is on Sunday, which should be cloudy with the slight chance of a shower.

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