Maitland has finally experienced its first taste of hot Summer weather this week and conditions are set to continue into the weekend.
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Hot and sunny conditions are forecast for Saturday and Sunday with tops of 35 degrees tipped for both days.
As for the much anticipated Christmas break forecast, conditions currently expected to be mild. Weatherzone has forecast a top of 25 degrees for Christmas Day with a 90 per cent chance of between 1 and 5mm of rain.
Similar conditions are forecast for Boxing Day.
In other news:
And while the weather is starting to look up following weeks of rain, the NRMA has released figures which show that Newcastle and the Hunter were in the top three locations hardest hit by wild weather in Spring.
The latest NRMA Insurance Wild Weather Tracker has revealed the huge impact of wild weather in eastern Australia over the past three months with the insurer recording its highest number of home claims for weather damage in spring.
The Tracker revealed the most impacted towns and suburbs in Newcastle and the Hunter in Spring 2021 were: Maryland, Wallsend, Thornton, Fletcher and Charlestown
The NRMA Insurance data reveals claims for weather damage in spring across NSW, QLD and the ACT - were 35 per cent above average. Hail accounted for almost half of these claims after supercell storms battered NSW's Coffs Harbour region in October. The data shows 7 per cent of all wild weather claims in NSW during Spring came from the Hunter.
The Tracker monitors severe weather claims in communities across NSW, QLD and the ACT and is released after every season to help people prepare and protect themselves from wild weather. In a typical spring, wild weather accounts for just over half (55 per cent) of all NRMA Insurance home claims, however in spring 2021, two-thirds (66%) of all home claims in NSW, QLD and the ACT were caused by wild weather.
Coffs Harbour was the NSW region hardest hit by severe weather, while the Gold Coast was most impacted in Queensland and Canberra's CBD recorded the most claims in the ACT.
With a La Nina weather system now officially declared, NRMA Insurance's Executive Manager Natural Perils, Mark Leplastrier, urged Australians to take the threat of a wet and potentially wild summer seriously.
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