About 2000 households are still without power in NSW after a ferocious storm swept through Sydney and the Illawarra.
The storm on Tuesday night generated damaging winds and hailstones after NSW kicked off summer with a scorcher, with temperatures in the high 30s and early 40s.
At the peak of the storm, 21,500 households lost power as trees fell over, bringing down powerlines.
The bulk of affected customers are in the Hawkesbury region and there are also isolated pockets of outages in the Blue Mountains and western Sydney.
Endeavour Energy said on Wednesday evening it aimed to restore power to all customers before the end of the night.
Many of those who lost power also were also affected by Sunday's windstorm, which followed the state's weekend heatwave.
Triple zero received more than 350 calls for emergency service assistance over the three hours to 9pm on Tuesday night, prompting 200 call-outs.
That included a call-out about 8pm to Charlotte Street in Ashfield, where a lightning strike caused a fire in the top part of a bell tower. The fire was extinguished within two hours.
Most NSW residents enjoyed significantly more pleasant weather on Wednesday, with temperatures across Greater Sydney failing to break 30C.
The warmest weather in NSW was felt in the northern tablelands, including Inverell, and the northwest slopes and plains, including Tamworth, Moree, Narrabri and Wee Waa.
Meteorologists are tipping the mercury to begin rising again on the weekend.
"Temperatures (will be) starting to creep up again around Saturday, just ahead of the next cold front that will be making its way through," Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Alex Majchrowski told reporters on Tuesday.
