As expected, Sydney sweltered through a scorching Sunday with the mercury soaring into the 40's but failing to smash the all-time November record.
In the CBD on Sunday, the temperature reached 40.4 degrees, just shy of the 1982 November record of 41.8.
Further west at Sydney airport, the mercury shot up to 42.5 degrees, almost nudging the 1982 record for that area of 43.4, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) said.
"There were near-record temperatures right throughout Sydney (on Sunday), which reached up to 40 degrees, so there was no escape from the heat for anyone," BoM forecaster Michael Logan said.
The movies, the beach ... and ice cream anywhere ... were the preferred ways to beat the heat.
Around 25,000 people flocked to Bondi beach yet , lifeguards said they didn't have to log many rescues.
"We performed more rescues on Monday than we did today," one lifeguard told AAP.
Anna Kennedy was one of many people who went to George Street cinema in Sydney city for respite.
"I should be used to it coming from Brisbane, but it is really hot," she said.
Overseas visitors, Egli Becerra from South America and Italian Manuela Vettore, also went to the movies to cool down.
"We hadn't planned on going to the movies, it was just too hot outside," Egli Becerra said.
Paramedics were kept busy around midday as the mercury climbed steeply, attending four heat exposure cases in the three hours between 12pm (AEDT) and 3pm.
One case was at Taronga Zoo; the others were spread across Sydney from Windsor in the far west to the northern beaches suburb of Dee Why.
Other cases that paramedics attended across Sydney may have been heat-related but it was impossible to say how many, an ambulance spokeswoman said.
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