Weather News

Severe storm lashes Sydney

Drew Casper-Richardson, Sunday October 21, 2018 - 10:15 AEDT

Severe storms roared through the Harbour City early late on Saturday, bringing heavy rain, gusty winds and providing a spectacular light show.

A strong cold front moved through New South Wales, forcing a warm and humid airmass upward, creating a line of storms that, at times, stretched from the Victorian border all the way to southern Queensland. This prompted a Severe Thunderstorm Warning to be issued for large parts of NSW.

In Sydney, Hornsby picked up the highest total rainfall from the storms with 28mm reaching the gauge whilst nearby Wahroonga picked up 25mm. Elsewhere in the basin Sydney Airport recorded 21mm, Randwick 20mm, Marrickville 18mm and Avalon 16mm. The city itself recorded 13mm. Rainfall was very heavy at times with 15mm falling in just 10 minutes at Sydney Airport with Canterbury getting 10mm and the city 8mm in the same amount time. Rainfall rates this high are enough to cause localised flash flooding.

Rainfall wasn't the only feature of the storm. Winds were gusty as the storm moved through and the highest recorded wind gust in the Sydney basin was 72km/h at the airport. This also brought a significant drop in temperature with the airport shaving off five degrees in just 11 minutes.

Lightning lovers were treated to a spectacular show with around 7000 strikes recorded over Sydney.

Sydney will be storm free on Sunday with just the chance of a light shower through the day.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2018

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