The Bureau of Meteorology says warm, dry and windy conditions are being observed over eastern parts of NSW ahead of a cold front, which is set to bring a cool change during the afternoon and evening.

Severe fire danger has now been forecast in the Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Greater Hunter and Greater Sydney Region fire districts on Wednesday. Initially, the fire danger level was ‘very high’.

Inspector Ben Shepherd, from the NSW Rural Fire Service, said the fire warning was issued on the back of a revised forecast from the bureau.

“This [severe fire danger] is due to higher than forecast winds possibly gusting up around 60km/h, or maybe even higher, and a drier-than-normal atmosphere,” Insp Shepherd said at 12.10pm.

“Currently through Nowra were are seeing 26 degrees and west-northwesterly winds already gust up to about 70km/h and that has tipped the fire danger into ‘severe’.

“So, we are now likely to see severe fire dangers in through the Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Metropolitan [Sydney] and the Hunter areas for a number of hours this afternoon.

“There is a change still expected; that will make its way up the coast and it’s likely to be through Sydney from around 5 o’clock this afternoon.”

At 12.10pm on Wednesday, it was 28.2 degrees in Albion Park and 27.5 at Bellambi.

A west-northwesterly wind gust of 76km/h was recorded in Albion Park at 12.14pm, while a northwesterly gust of 67km/h was felt in Bellambi at 12.04pm.

A 140-hectare hazard reduction burn initially planned for the Wilsons Creek area north west of Helensburgh on Wednesday has been postponed until further notice due to the elevated fire danger.

The RFS advises you to:

The RFS advises that if you are in an area of severe fire danger:

For information on preparing for bushfires, visit rfs.nsw.gov.au.

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