Sydney hits its highest temperature recorded since 1939 with Penrith reaching 47.3C

Penrith in Sydney's west reaches a top of 47.3 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature recorded by a weather station in the Sydney metropolitan area in 79 years.

The temperature hit 47.3C at Penrith just after 3:00pm.

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) early this afternoon said it had confirmed preliminary data and declared it was the highest temperature ever recorded by a weather station in the Sydney metropolitan area.

However, the NSW BOM tweeted just after 4:00pm that they had missed a temperature in the north-western Sydney suburb of Richmond, at a now closed recording station.

The 1939 high was 47.8C.

Andrew Haigh from BOM said there would be some heat relief on the coast with a weak south-easterly change forecast to come through later on Sunday.