Temperatures of above 40 degrees were reported around the country before midday, while scattered showers were a welcome surprise to parts of NSW including the Hunter area.

By 1pm parts of the NSW mid-north coast were nearing the mid 40s, with Kempsey airport recording almost 44 degrees.

Temperatures stayed between the mid 20s and early 30s across the Southern Tablelands and South Coast but Bourke and Cobar in the state’s west were feeling the heat at 46 degrees and 44 degrees this afternoon. 

Firefighters had welcomed the cool change which they said came several hours early.

Temperatures across Victoria did not pass the late 20s but Moomba airport in South Australia recorded 47.9 degrees at 12.30pm. A Bureau of Meteorology spokesman told Fairfax the afternoon showers in NSW were caused by a mid level trough which had progressed over NSW.

He said Victoria had experienced similar conditions yesterday.

However in inland parts of Australia today the sky was much clearer and high temperatures were being recorded, the spokesman said.

A hot dry day was expected for northern inland NSW tomorrow while southern and coastal NSW would benefit from the cool change which had swept through some areas, including Nowra today.

"There’ll  be a warming trend later in the week, it’ll start to warm up by Wednesday and on Thursday it’ll be quite hot," The spokesman said.

"But temperatures will be lower than we've recently experienced."