Hottest day of 2022 for Orange comes in the last week of the year

When Orange recorded 28.9 degrees all the way back on February 10, it was not only the hottest day of that summer, but it would end up being the city's hottest day of 2022 - until this week, that is.

It took until the dying days of the year, but Orange now has a new title-holder for 2022: 29.8 degrees on Boxing Day.

The city got hot early and was hovering around the 29 degree mark in the early afternoon on December 26 - 23.1 degrees at 9am and 28.8 degrees at 3pm - but got over the line in the mid-afternoon. The last time Orange saw a temperature that high came back on January 26, 2021.

Orange's 13.9 degree day (with a strong southwesterly wind) on December 14 means the hottest maximum of this month has doubled the month's coldest maximum.

That sounds extreme, but the difference was even more pronounced last month, when the warmest day (25.6 degrees on November 27) was nearly four times the coldest day (7 degrees on November 2).

And the forecast for the rest of Orange's December? Well, it was another hot one on Wednesday, with the 9am reading registering 20.3 degrees. Temperatures are due to dip a little from Thursday onwards.

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