Temperatures across Sydney reached the mid-to-high 30s on Wednesday afternoon, as damaging winds with gusts above 100km/h whipped through Victoria .

Sydney’s Observatory Hill recorded 36.6C at 3pm on Wednesday, with the temperature having climbed more than 10C in a period of 90 minutes, from 26.5C at 12:30 to 36.8C at 2pm.

If temperatures in the CBD reached 39C on Wednesday as forecast, the city’s October heat record of 38.2C, set in 2004 at Observatory Hill, could fall.

Bankstown in Sydney’s west, Gosford to the north and Williamtown, north of Newcastle, had all reached 38C at 3:30pm, according to the BoM.

On Tuesday, both New South Wales and Queensland recorded their hottest-ever October temperatures , the highest since records began in 1910, according to the Bureau of Meteorolog

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