Temperatures reached a peak of 29.7 degrees at Albion Park at 12.57pm, while Bellambi recorded a high of 29.5 degrees.

However, a southerly change moving up the coast on Thursday afternoon made temperatures drop rapidly throughout the region.

The temperature at Albion Park dropped to 19.1 degrees as of 3pm on Thursday, while Bellambi fell to 18.5 degrees.

Read more: Inside the amazing transformation of a run-down Fairy Meadow house

Looking ahead, Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Helen Kirkup said a trough throughout inland NSW may move almost to the coast by Monday, but most of the rainfall will likely occur throughout inland NSW and over the ranges.

Although there was a 50 per cent chance of showers in the Illawarra on both Saturday and Sunday, she said they weren't expecting a high rainfall total for the region on those days.

"We're expecting showers on and off over the next few days - any time over the weekend, and even until Monday.

"But you're only going to see a few millimetres out of it (on the weekend), so you'll probably get most of the weekend being reasonably fine.

"On Saturday, you're maybe looking at one or two millimetres, but there might be an isolated spot that gets maybe five, and the same for Sunday.

"In terms of actual rainfall totals, we're probably only looking at a few millimetres, but with probably Monday having a slight chance of thunderstorms.

"The thunderstorms will be fairly isolated (in terms of location) - they're not going to be widespread."

We depend on subscription revenue to support our journalism. If you are able, please subscribe here. If you are already a subscriber, thank you for your support.