It was a year of mixed weather, but 2017 brought the hottest day on record for several parts of the Hunter.
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Singleton suffered through a positively scorching 47.2 degrees – 2.5 degrees off the hottest day ever in NSW which was recorded at Menindee on January 10, 1939.
Tocal also hit the 47 degree mark – the highest temperature recorded in that location in at least 50 years.
Cessnock was the only other place to top 46 degrees, reaching 46.8.
Maitland peaked at 45.6, Williamtown wasn’t far behind on 45.5 and the University hit 43.8.
It was a year of record temperatures for Singleton and Cessnock. Both areas broke their own records for the hottest July and September days.
On July 30, it reached an unseasonably warm 26.5 degrees in Singleton and 25.3 degrees in Cessnock.
On September 23 the temperature hit 36.4 degrees in Singleton and 35.7 degrees in Cessnock. Newcastle received its hottest September minimum temperature the day after, with the mercury not dipping below 21.9 degrees.
But as well as extreme heat, Singleton also had its lowest temperature on record in July with a chilly -4.2 degrees on July 22.
The Newcastle University weather station, which has been open since 1998, also had several broken weather records this year, including lowest September overnight temperature on the 2nd (4.2 degrees).
The University had its highest January and March overnight temperatures with 26.2 degrees on January 14 and 23.8 degrees on March 30.
This year also saw the highest amount of March rainfall on record at Newcastle University, with 262.4mm across the month.
Williamtown recorded its warmest January overnight temperature, with a minimum of 26.1 on January 14.
The Bureau of Meteorology has predicted a wet start to 2018 for the Hunter, with a 65-70 per cent chance of higher than median rainfall for January.
The BOM also expects less than a 40 per cent chance of higher than median temperatures across the region for the month.