Sydney sweats through hottest January night ever

No, you did not imagine it — Friday night was ridiculously hot — because it was the hottest Sydney night in January since city weather records began.

Hottest nights are measured by the lowest temperature reached during the night.

On Friday night, the temperature in the city got to its lowest point at a sweaty 26.4 degrees Celsius at about 11:00pm, the Bureau of Meteorology [BOM] said.

Then it just got hotter, climbing to 31C by 1:00am.

"[Friday night] was actually the warmest January night the city has ever recorded, and records for the city station go back to 1858 so there's quite a while of records there," BOM duty forecaster Rebecca Kamitakahara said.

This may seem a little like groundhog day if you are a weather watcher, you may remember that just last month Sydney recorded its highest ever overnight minimum for December.