Tops of 26C and 27C are predicted for the city on the weekend according to the Bureau of Meteorology, with only a slight chance of rain on Saturday.

The mercury will gradually rise from there, with 29C forecast for Newcastle on Monday followed by what's expected to be the first 30-plus degree day of the year on Tuesday.

The temperature is set to hover around 30 degrees until at least Thursday, accompanied by mostly sunny skies.

The 30C temperatures are also expected to be felt elsewhere in the region through the week. Maximum temperatures of 35C and 34C have been predicted for Maitland and Cessnock on Tuesday, while further up the valley the mercury is forecast to reach up to 36 degrees.

Related: Aust marked fourth-hottest year in 2020

The warm change comes after a cool and wet start to the year, which has been a vast difference to the start of 2020.

By this time last year, the temperature had already hit a scorching 39.9 degrees in Newcastle, which took place on January 4. So far in 2021, the temperature has peaked at just 26.7 degrees in the city, which coincidentally also occurred on January 4.

On the coolest day of the year - January 1 - the temperature didn't get past 19.7C. In comparison, the coolest day in all of January 2020 was the 11^th, when the mercury peaked at 21.7C.

In terms of the rainfall, Williamtown has already had 82mm of rain in the first eight days of the year, compared to 67.2mm in the entire month of January 2020.

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