The first of several possible storms for the weekend passed over Canberra on Friday evening as the Bureau of Meteorology warned of a severe thunderstorm in the region.
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Heavy rain and hail fell across Canberra and the storm was also expected to bring hail and damaging winds to the south coast, southern tablelands and the snowy mountains.
After a long weekend of genuine summer-like temperatures this weekend might feel comparatively cooler.
But a string of days peaking in the mid-20s will still be well above average alongside a chance of a shower or storm, Weatherzone meteorologist Rob Sharpe said.
Friday is forecast to reach a maximum 26 degrees before tops of 27 degrees on Saturday and 24 degrees on Sunday; five to six degrees above average.
"The long weekend was very warm for this time of year," he said.
"From tomorrow onwards it's going to be well above average again. The October long-term average is 19.5 degrees.
"It looks like it's going to be a very warm October compared to usual and it looks like it's going to be a very dry October compared to usual."
Mr Sharpe said the warm weather could be peppered with the odd shower or thunderstorm thanks to a low pressure trough that had formed over southern and central parts of the country.
"There is a chance of a few showers and maybe a couple thunderstorms through to next week. The risk is greater on Sunday or Monday," he said.
"The air mass across the country is still very dry - we had very dry air moving into Canberra last weekend. Any shower or thunderstorm we do get will probably be fairly light."
Mr Sharpe expected less than 10mm of rain over the next week.
He said maximum temperatures could dip to the low to mid 20s by Tuesday and Wednesday, before warming up again in time for the following weekend.
The warmer weather has allowed patient Canberrans to get behind the camera and snap some intimate photos of wildlife for The Canberra Times spring photo competition.
Philipp Brandl of Yarralumla captured a swamp wallaby eating golden blooms from a wattle tree in Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve.
Competition entrants' photos have the chance of being published in the Canberra Times newspaper or on canberratimes.com.au.
Send a maximum of three photos to photocomp@canberratimes.com.au as attached JPEG files and include your name, address, phone number, photo title, a description of the photo and the date it was taken.
Photos must be between 150 kilobytes and one megabyte. Winners will take home a share of the $1000 prize.
Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of The Canberra Times.
