TAMWORTH sweltered through five straight days where the temperature passed 40 degrees to start the new year.
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It comes after 2019 was officially declared the hottest year on record in the country music capital.
While the new year's hot streak was hard to bear, it wasn't completely unprecedented.
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There was a five-day run of 40-plus degree days from January 15 to 19 last year.
Weatherzone meteorologist Tom Hough told the Leader there was no other recorded instance of an equal, or longer, hot spell in the 27 years since Tamworth's current weather station opened.
Tamworth's early-January heatwave this year peaked on Sunday, when the mercury climbed to 42.4 degrees.
The city fell short of eclipsing this record yesterday, when the temperature climbed to only 39 degrees.
Tamworth's weather in 2020, however, is already on a record-breaking route.
While it is only early in the piece, top temperatures this month are tracking at 8.7 degrees above the long-term average (32.7 degrees).
This month's minimum temperatures have also stayed 5.3 degrees higher than the long-term mean (22.7 degrees).
The heat looks like it's here to stay for the rest the rest of the week, but a cool change could be on the cards for Sunday.
"Through to Saturday, the north-westerly winds could last into the afternoon," Mr Hough said.
"There's a southerly change predicted late on Saturday afternoon which will bring that cooler weather.
"It's forecast to be 37 degrees on Saturday and then that cooler change will take it to around 28 on Sunday."
There is a small chance of some scattered showers through this week.
Mr Hough said there mightn't be a whole lot of rainfall, but some thunderstorms forecast later in the week could bring a bigger a dumping.
Last year in Tamworth was the hottest and second-driest in history, and a number of monthly and daily records were broken.
December alone was more than 5 degrees hotter than average.