A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for heavy rainfall in Sydney and parts of the NSW east coast, disrupting flights and public transport.
Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms slammed into Sydney on Monday afternoon, with the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) warning the storm was likely to produce heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding.
A cluster of severe thunderstorms has converged on the Sydney region on Monday afternoon, delivering heavy rain, hail, and hazardous driving conditions.
Fortunately, no reports of damaging hail have yet emerged, with the largest hailstones being not much bigger than pea-sized.
As the storms rolled in just after 3pm, the BoM issued a Severe Thunderstorm Warning for heavy rainfall for the Sydney area as well as parts of the Hunter, Illawarra, Central Tablelands, Southern Tablelands and South West Slopes forecast districts.
The wild weather was caused by a trough moving over NSW which combined with an unstable airmass. The trough will deepen overnight enhancing showers and thunderstorms across the central ranges and coast of NSW, before impacting the northern ranges and coast on Tuesday.
The storms were relatively fast-moving, however moderate rainfall totals were recorded in a short time-frame, including:
- 18.4mm at Sydney Observatory Hill in just over half an hour up till 3:30pm.
- 23.6mm at Canterbury (about 12km southwest of the Sydney CBD), again in little more than half an hour.
