Temperatures in Canberra peaked at 39 degrees on Sunday, 16 degrees above the usual November average, but the unusually hot spell is not expected to last long.
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For Fiona Veikkanen, from Kambah, and her son Horatio, the sweltering heat meant just one thing: swimming at Canberra's "own beach" Kambah Pool.
"We just needed to find some water," she said, and she wasn't the only one with families filling the banks of the Murrumbidgee River and packing Canberra's pools.
Earlier forecasts of 36 degrees were revised up to 38 in the lead-up to Sunday, but at 2.35pm Canberra hit its "extremely warm" peak of 39 degrees spurred on by north-westerly wind gusts of 54km/h, Weatherzone meteorologist Kim Westcott said.
Sunday's maximum fell just short of the hottest November peak on record when temperatures hit 39.9 in 2009.
"Canberra usually on average in November sees temperatures at around 23 degrees as opposed to 39 degrees," Ms Westcott said.
"For November it's been extremely warm, about 5 degrees above average for maximum temperatures."
Manuka Pool manager Bryan Pasfield said Sunday had been the pool's busiest day of an already busy season with 840 people through the gates by 3pm.
"We're about 25 per cent up on last year," he said.
"We've had a couple of warmer weekends and it changes people's thinking, they're thinking earlier [in the season] to come down for a swim."
Ms Westcott said the hot air mass was on the move.
Monday is forecast to reach 31 degrees with a possible thunderstorm in the afternoon which could result in 5 to 10mm of rain.
"We might see another shower again on Tuesday and Wednesday, but these will be pretty light," she said.
Tuesday's top is forecast for 27, Wednesday 26 and the coolest day will most likely be Thursday when temperatures are only tipped to reach 23 degrees.
"We'll slowly head back down towards average and that's because you've got a cooler air mass moving in through NSW from the south," Ms Westcott said.
"These hot conditions are caused by really intense heat building up over interior Australia sweeping through ahead of low pressure troughs."
Friday is forecast to hit a maximum of 25 and Saturday, 27.
Ms Westcott said the warm November days had translated into lack of rainfall for Canberra.
"We've only seen 18.2mm of rain for November so far which is a whole lot less than the 65mm that Canberra usually sees in November," she said.
"We've only seen three rain days and on average we see about 10."
Although Canberrans may have felt it on Sunday, things were worse interstate as one visitor to Kambah Pool knew all too well.
Emily Rose travelled to the ACT from Sydney's inner west to escape the heat where temperatures were tipped to reach 46 degrees.
