Weather News

Warragamba Dam overflowing after torrential rain

James Casey, Thursday August 27, 2015 - 12:33 AEST

The last 72 hours has seen southeastern parts of NSW get soaked with flooding a real risk for central and southern parts of the state.

Many locations in the Illawarra have recorded over 200mm in the last three days, Nowra was the heaviest hit with 400mm, including the heaviest 48 hours of rainfall in over 100 years of records.

The South Coast was also soaked, with multiple locations picking up over 250mm in the past three days. Ulladulla had two consecutive days of the heaviest August rain in almost two decades.

All this rain has to go somewhere, causing rivers and dams to swell and making flooding a risk for the Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra, the South Coast, Central West Slopes and Plains and the Riverina.

Western Sydney is at risk of some minor flooding along the Nepean River as Warragamba Dam overflows for the first time in two years. Further south, over 300 properties have been evacuated in Shoalhaven as the St Georges Basin rose over a metre above normal levels.

An east coast low and associated troughs caused this torrential rain to fall over the last few days. The next few days will see rain gradually ease as the low slowly moves south and east into the Tasman.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2015

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