Campers sweltered through Friday night, with the city only getting down as far as 27 degrees at 4.30am, before the gauges hit 30 at just 8am and continued to rise fro then until maxing out at 40 degrees at 5pm.

Saturday’s forecast to reach 41 degrees, before some cloud cover, and the chance of storms, will see the mercury drop to the mid to high 30’s on Sunday and into Monday.

Tamworth and Region Weather founder David Farrenden has warned residents not to expect too much of a change in the near future.

“The high pressure system over the Tasman is controlling everything. There might be a small change but we are on the wrong side of the range to feel too much change,” he said.

“It might drop two or three degrees next week, but then the mercury is heading north again.”

Meanwhile further west White Cliffs (48.2), Wilcannia (47.9) and Broken Hill (46.3) all broke previous records on Friday.

Locally the Tamworth RFS brigade have toiled tirelessly through the night to bring six blazes under control that have been started by lightning over the past five days.

Superintendent Allyn Purkiss praised the efforts of over 45 volunteers, who have all but extinguished five of the six blazes, with the remaining fire at Hall’s Creek currently being controlled.

Across the state over 8236 hectares have been burnt out, with 71 fires still burning as of Friday afternoon. 

Friday’s total fire ban has been lifted on all areas except the Southern Slopes.