A bright red swimming pool would hardly seem to exude a feeling of coolness but for the Wilson brothers it was the only place to be on Sunday afternoon, when the temperature neared 37 degrees.
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The warm and windy weekend created havoc for firefighters, and Canberrans cranked up the airconditioning to cope.
By 3pm on Sunday, the temperature had reached 36.7 degrees and remained around the 35 mark at 5pm, after Saturday's top of 36 degrees and an overnight temperature of 16.2 degrees.
But it's not expected to last for long.
Weatherzone meteorologist Drew Casper-Richardson said a cool change on Sunday night would mean Monday would be noticeably cooler with a forecast top of 26 degrees, and the colder air mass would bring cloud and an increased chance of showers.
"In terms of rainfall there could be a decent amount of rain with this system," he said.
It will be good news for firefighters battling a blaze at Mount Clear - about 14 kilometres west of the Monaro Highway.
With the windy, hot weather creating severe fire danger during the weekend, Mr Casper-Richardson said the conditions would become more favourable for firefighters by Monday.
The chance of showers, tipped to begin in the early hours of Monday, would continue into the afternoon, with falls of five to 10 millimetres and perhaps up to 20 millimetres before it was expected to clear by the evening.
"From Tuesday onwards, we're looking at it being generally clear," Mr Casper-Richardson said.
"There's a very slight chance of a shower, but it's not really going to be anything significant."
Lower temperatures were likely for much of the working week, Mr Casper-Richardson said, with tops of 23 on Tuesday, 24 on Wednesday and 25 on Thursday.
By Christmas Day, the temperature was tipped to get up to 28 with potential for a shower or two – likely to be similar on Boxing Day.
But if rain did eventuate for Christmas Day, Mr Casper-Richardson said it was unlikely to be significant.
"I'd be pretty confident in it staying dry for the vast majority of the day. There may be the odd shower around in the afternoon ... but it will be fairly light," he said.
And for those planning an outdoor Christmas gathering, a rare full moon, said to be the first on Christmas Day since 1977, is likely to mean they can rage on well into December 26.
Mr Casper-Richardson said the chance of showers was likely to increase later in the week and temperatures could nudge 30 degrees by next Sunday depending on cloud cover.
Although the hot weekend may have meant uncomfortable nights, Canberrans were the lucky ones – their counterparts in Adelaide sweltered through a heatwave in which temperatures reached 40 degrees for four consecutive days.
Mr Casper-Richardson said the territory's weather was typical for summer.
"Everyone is talking about El Nino, and that's one of the causes of the significant heat spells we've been having," he said.
"It allows heat to build over north-west Australia and then, as you get troughs crossing the country, it drags that really hot air mass ahead of it down to south-east Australia to impact places like Adelaide, Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne and down to Hobart as well."
