You could not hope for much better weather across an extra long weekend than what the Illawarra can expect over Easter.
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The Bureau of Meteorology forecast a partly cloudy across the region on Good Friday, with tops of 23 degrees forecast for Wollongong and Kiama, and 24 for Albion Park.
The weather is set to warm up going into Saturday: the BOM expects a sunny day in the Illawarra, with a maximum of 26 degrees in Wollongong, 27 in Albion Park, and 25 in Kiama.
Sunday will be partly cloudy, but with similar daytime temperatures across the region.
Seeing out the long weekend on Easter Monday is another day of fair weather, with temperatures in the mid to high 20s.
Warmer-than-average months ahead
The BOM's latest climate outlook suggests the rest of autumn will be warmer than usual for the Illawarra, after a March that has already delivered above-average temperatures.
While the week starting Tuesday, April 2 is likely to be cooler than average, the three-month outlook to June shows maximum temperatures are up to three times more likely than normal to be unusually high.
This increases to four times more likely for the three months of May to July.
The BOM says there is a 94 per cent chance Wollongong's median maximum temperature from April to June will exceed the historical median of 20.1 degrees, with similar likelihoods at Albion Park and Kiama.
During this three-month period, Albion Park's average maximum is 20.3 degrees, while Kiama's is 20 degrees.
Overnight temperatures are also expected to be unusually warm: the climate outlooks show minimums from April to June in the Illawarra are up to 3.5 times more likely than normal to reach the warmest historical 20 per cent of April to June nights.
This increases to more than four times as likely from May to July.
Rainfall is expected to be about average from April to June, with an equal chance of either exceeding or falling below the median.
However, the chance of exceeding the three-month median rises to 55 to 65 per cent for May to July.
The BOM says the outlook reflects the impact of a number of climate influences, including global sea surface temperatures, which have been the highest on record for all respective months from April 2023 to February 2024.
This March is also on track to be the warmest March on record for sea surface temperatures.
BOM senior hydrologist Dr Paul Feikema said sea surface temperatures off the east coast of Australia were warmer than average.
"They are forecast to remain above-average from April to June," Dr Feikema said.
The BOM also says the warming of Australia's climate by about 1.5 degrees between 1910 and 2023 means an increased frequency of extreme heat events.
El Nino is nearing its end, the BOM says, with most climate models forecasting a return to neutral conditions in May.