Firefighters have battled dozens of blazes in NSW as extremely hot, windy conditions sweep across large parts of Australia.

The NSW Rural Fire Service incident map showed at least nine fires were still not yet contained by early Wednesday afternoon, while a “watch and act” issued for a bushfire near Newcastle was later downgraded.

“The RFS is currently monitoring worsening conditions as the temperature and wind steadily increases,” the Fire Service said on X.

“Lightning strikes have been detected throughout the central and southern parts of the state.”

The Bureau of Meteorology earlier issued an extreme fire danger forecast for the Greater Hunter, Greater Sydney Region, Illawarra/Shoalhaven and Upper Central West Plains, warning of possible thunderstorms and “strong and potentially damaging wind gusts”.

As of 8:00am there are 36 fires burning across NSW, with nine yet to be contained. A Total Fire Ban is currently in place for the Greater Sydney, Illawarra/Shoalhaven, Greater Hunter, Upper Central West Plains and North Western areas. For more info: https://t.co/SwFG8PzKTA pic.twitter.com/qIi3mc0dn7

— NSW RFS (@NSWRFS) October 21, 2025

Victorians also faced strong winds and potential power outages, with widespread gusts between of 90km-110km/h. The bureau said these could rise to 120km/h on the south-west Victorian coast, Bellarine and Mornington peninsulas and Bass coast.

As the winds strengthened on Wednesday afternoon, a race meeting at Geelong was called off. Patrons had earlier been evacuated from marquees on course.

“We’re asking Victorians to ensure that they are prepared for power outages,” Victorian Emergency Management commissioner Tim Wiebusch said.

“That means be aware of fallen powerlines that may be on the ground but also ensure that you’ve charged your mobile devices.”

A spring heatwave has cranked up the mercury, with Queensland and NSW both hitting their highest recorded temperatures for the month of October.

Birdsville in Queensland’s south-west reached 46.1 degrees while Bourke in NSW’s far north reached 44.8 degrees on Tuesday.

Parts of Sydney were expected to flirt with maximums of 40 degrees on Wednesday, according to BoM senior meteorologist Angus Hines, with some suburbs reaching 38 degrees by about 3pm.

“These are typically temperatures that we would only see in a summer heatwave, but it’s still spring,” Hines said, adding that the heat would be driven by very strong winds.

“That wind is packing a lot of heat and when you hear about hot winds at this time of year you should be wondering about fire danger, and indeed we will be seeing elevated fire danger across eastern parts of the country.”

He noted that fires in these conditions could spread “extremely quickly”: “So absolute caution is required with all things to do with fire across NSW today”.

#SevereWeatherWarnings for damaging winds are current for parts of #SA, #Victoria, and #NSW.

For the latest forecasts and warnings visit our website https://t.co/4W35o8i7wJ or the BOM Weather app. pic.twitter.com/8R7TEP0lZq

— Bureau of Meteorology, Australia (@BOM_au) October 21, 2025

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park urged residents to seek shade, avoid the outdoors and drink water regularly.

“We’re asking everyone today to take steps to protect themselves,” he said.

“Let’s also look out for another – our older friends and family, babies and young children, and pregnant women.”

Fairfax reported that hundreds of Sydney residents were at risk of being left without power during the hot weather because of planned outages for powerline repairs in several parts of the city.

The hot and windy conditions could also put animals in harm’s way, International Fund for Animal Welfare officer Robert Leach said.

“Animals don’t have fire plans. We do,” he said. “We are trying to do better for our wildlife, so they do not suffer so immensely again.

“Animals like koalas are only just recovering after the devastation of Black Summer, we cannot afford another catastrophe.”

NSW authorities warned walking tracks and remote campgrounds in national parks across the areas could be closed “at short notice” if conditions worsened on Wednesday.

Conditions in most of NSW are expected to be much cooler on Thursday. Well-above average temperatures are still expected in the country’s north, with Hines noting predictions of 40 degrees or higher for central Queensland, parts of the Northern Territory and parts of northern Western Australia.

“This heat along northern Australia will continue for multiple days,” Hines said.

“This means that in the second half of this week, from Wednesday to Friday, we’ve got heatwave conditions and heatwave warnings in place across large parts of northern Australia, especially Queensland and the Territory. Long, strong heatwaves.”

–with AAP