Weather News

Wild weather focusing on Illawarra and South Coast

James Casey, Wednesday April 22, 2015 - 12:48 AEST

An east coast low is beginning to edge further south shifting its wild weather from the Hunter and Sydney to the Illawarra and South Coast.

Inland parts of the Hunter were hit the hardest with more than 400mm in 48 hours flooding Dungog and Maitland, the heaviest rain in over 100 years of records. Included in these downpours was a torrential 100mm falling in a one hour period and 300mm in 24 hours. Flooding with this rain event caused three deaths, washed houses off their foundations and inundated roads.

Sydney had its heaviest rain event in 17 years, picking up over 250mm since early on Monday morning to Wednesday afternoon. Sydney's North Shore was hit the hardest with around 300mm falling in 48 hours at Hornsby, Turramurra and Wahroongah, the heaviest rain in 23 years.

Strong winds during this period caused trees to topple over, ripped roofs of homes and damaged power lines causing over 200,000 homes to be without power. The maximum wind gust was 135km/h at Newcastle and Wattamolla, although it wasn't these gusts that caused all of the damage as persistent strong winds continued for a day and a half. For 36 hours winds at Sydney Airport averaged 60-80km/h with gusts up to 100km/h making it the windiest spell in at least 13 years.

On Wednesday, the east coast low will slowly edge to the south, shifting its attention from the Hunter to southern Sydney and the Illawarra, bringing the risk of 25-50mm with the odd fall near 100mm possible. On Wednesday evening the South Coast will see the heavy rain falls of 40-80mm with potential for more than 100.

Patches of blue sky were sighted in the Hunter and northern parts of Sydney this morning before thundery showers moved into the areas. For the Hunter and Sydney conditions will ease tonight while the Illawarra and South Coast will see wind and rain ease tomorrow morning. Light showers will occur from the Hunter to South Coast until the weekend drying up just in time for the ANZAC Day dawn service before a cold front brings more showers in the afternoon.

- Weatherzone

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