It will feel like the start of summer at the end of the week - but be warned: nice, high temperatures may not last.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Thursday will reach 27 degrees, Friday 28, Saturday 26 and Sunday 27.
The weather people are loathe to call it the start of summer, though, because the unusually high temperatures for the start of October are likely to be followed by a drop in mercury at the beginning of next week.
"We are heading into a warm weekend, significantly warmer than average," meteorologist Rose Barr said.
"That's especially notable for the start of October."
Despite the expected rise in temperature, don't expect to swim in an outdoor pool. They are unlikely to be open - and the ducks have priority in some.
The outdoor pool in Phillip plans to open by the first of November but earlier if they can sort the ducks there out first. "We need to get rid of our ducks," said manager John Raut.
Other pools in the ACT and Queanbeyan are unlikely to open for the warm weather. Most are scheduled to open towards the end of October and scheduled cleaning and preparation can't be brought forward for a single, perhaps short, spell of summery weather.
Canberra and the surrounding parts of New South Wales face two weather factors jostling with each other. Hot winds from central Australia are increasingly arriving and pushing out colder winds from the south.
But the polar and Tasmanian coldness is unlikely to be vanquished by the hotter westerlies quite yet, forecasters say.
The "punch" of the cold winds will gradually drop and there are likely to be rapid transitions between the two as summer approaches.
The hottest day recorded in the ACT for this time of year was at Canberra Airport on October 21, 2013 when it reached 32 degrees.
The forecasters at the BOM say the coming spell of warm weather will be from six to 12 degrees above the average temperatures expected at this time of year.
The forecaster wouldn't be drawn on whether the unusually hot weather had anything to do with global warming. Meteorologists are loathe to draw big conclusions from single "weather events".
Snakes have already been sighted in the ACT as the weather warms. Catcher Gavin Smith was called to a house Lyneham on the weekend by a lady who saw an Eastern Brown on the outside sill of her French windows.
She saw it disappearing into a hole and called the catcher's company, ACT Snake Removals.
Mr Smith, who is also an academic at the Australian National University, said he expected to get more calls in the coming weeks.
"People need to be aware, they are going to be around and operating," he said.
"This is the start of snake season", he said which tends to come in stops and starts.
He advised anyone who sees a snake to stay still. "Give them a lot of space and a lot of respect."
