Southerly buster sweeps into the Illawarra, temperatures drop by 12 degrees

Australia Day crowds have sweated through a very hot day with the mercury reaching 35.7 degrees in Bellambi, 35.2 in Albion Park and 28.3 in Kiama.

This is much hotter than the January mean maximums of 25, 27 and 25.1 respectively.

"It's dropped 12 degrees in 45 minutes at Bellambi Point, and eight degrees in 30 minutes in Albion Park," Weatherzone meteorologist Brett Dutschke said.

This is typical for a southerly buster, he said.

"It's a strong southerly wind change that is powerful enough to cause some minor damage, like trees down, but also to drop the temperature rapidly, significantly, in a short amount of time," Mr Dutschke said.

Wind gusts of 74km/h have been recorded in Kiama, with 65km/h in Albion Park and 57km/h in Bellambi.

Strong winds have brought down trees Albion Park, Kiama, South Kiama, Moss Vale, Sutton Forest and Marulan.

Around 1pm a large branch from a gum tree took down power lines on Terry Street in Albion Park before coming to rest on the front fence of a home.

"Our team then set to work chain sawing and clearing the fallen tree with assistance from our FRNSW colleagues," Shellharbour SES said.

"The affected area was cleared and made safe within an hour."

Endeavour Energy reports there were no unplanned power outages at 3.20pm on Friday.

Mr Dutschke said the peak of the wind gusts are now over.

"It'll probably fluctuate from now for the rest of the afternoon," he said.

"By mid evening the winds will be half of what they are now and temperatures will be down to the early 20s."

A strong wind warning for coastal areas in the Illawarra remains in place.

Despite the hot weather no heat records were broken in the Illawarra. The hottest January day on record in Albion Park was 45.8 degrees, in Kiama is soared to 45 and in Bellambi it hit 43.7.