Morning Buzz: ‘Unprecedented’ early season heat

Last month's early-season bursts of heat sent temperatures of some parts of eastern Australia a full 16 degrees above average, new analysis by the Bureau of Meteorology shows.

In a Special Climate Statement examining two pulses of extreme warmth that seared large areas of inland Australia from Victoria to Queensland, the bureau identified the many national and statewide September records that tumbled. 

During the first of those events, which affected NSW on September 23-24, all but three inland sites set record hot days for September. Read more.

Details of a long-rumoured restructure to the NSW police force surfaced on Thursday, including a merger of 18 metro local area commands that will leave at least nine commanders without a job.

Chatswood and Harbourside, Eastern Suburbs and Rose Bay and Penrith and St Marys are among the local stations that could face a merger, according to a report by Seven News. Read more.

Of the 22 lives lost in the Hawkesbury River since 2002, the majority were men under the influence of alcohol.

Royal Life Saving has just launched their Respect the River campaign and has placed the Hawkesbury River as the second deadliest river system for drowning deaths across NSW and the fourth across the country.

Equally as astonishing was fact that 66 per cent of all deaths on the Hawkesbury River in that period involved alcohol, and 77 per cent of those had a blood alcohol reading of above 0.05 at the time of death. Read more.

Eight men have been charged for their alleged roles in the shooting murder of Mehmet Yilmaz in St Marys last year.

Mr Yilmaz, 29, was gunned down in front of a home on Brisbane Street, St Marys about 7.20pm on September 9, 2016. He died at the scene as his fiancee, who was waiting in a car parked in front of the house, watched on. Read more.

Anyone who bought a Lotto tickets in this week’s Monday and Wednesday Lotto draw from the Narellan Town Centre newsagency is being urged to check entry.

The $1 million winning ticket belongs to someone with a Player Club Card however, NSW Lotteries have been unable to reach the winner as the contact details were not set up.

NSW Lotteries spokeswoman, Bronnie Spencer urged the lucky winner to come forward. Read more.

The controversial No Left Turn at the southern end of Cronulla mall has created another traffic problem.

A report by Sutherland Shire Council staff says, “Concerns exist regarding northbound delays caused by increased turning movements in Cronulla Street”.Read more

The Australian dollar extended its retreat overnight, hovering near US78¢, in the wake of a poor retail sales report.

The Aussie was 0.9 per cent lower at US77.92¢ at about 5:45am AEDT, having fallen as low as US77.89c The currency has now pared its year-to-date advance against the greenback to 8.4 per cent. The $A has fallen 3.7 per cent against its US counterpart since touching US81.02¢ on September 21. Read more.

A controversial late penalty saw Australia squander a lead against Syria, throwing fresh doubts over the Socceroos' chances of advancing past the play-off stages and their ability to cause any sort of damage in the World Cup itself.

The match finished 1-1, with Omar Al-Somah slamming home the spot kick with five minutes to play, cancelling out Robbie Kruse's first half opener.

The Socceroos must now either win, draw 0-0 or draw 1-1 and then win via extra time or penalties to advance to a play-off against the fourth-placed North American team in November. Read more.

In our late pre-season debut, the Super Subs have kicked off.

This week we look at the puzzling strategy behind the A-League season launch attempting to go under the radar with the season sneaking up on us. Read more.

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So last minute was Andrew Fifita's decision to play for Tonga instead of Australia at the World Cup that until Thursday morning he intended to give Cronulla teammate Wade Graham a lift into town.

They were going to carpool to the Sydney airport hotel where Mal Meninga's 24-man squad assembled for medicals for the day.

That plan quickly went out the window when Fifita produced another pre-tournament shock, one that took fellow Sharks premiership winner Graham by surprise. Read more.

Penrith youngster Mikayla Hinkley is the embodiment of why the all-conquering NSW Breakers can continue to dominate women's cricket for another decade.

She's a member of Australia's Shooting Stars squad, she's spent the last few years learning from teammates Ellyse Perry, Alex Blackwell, Alyssa Healy and Rachael Haynes, she wants to stay at the Breakers for her entire career, and she's only 19. NSW's campaign for back-to-back WNCL crowns begins on Friday against Queensland at Blacktown. Read more.