Weather News

Wind, rain and surf to hammer eastern NSW

Ben McBurney, Monday April 20, 2015 - 11:07 AEST

Heavy rain, strong winds and powerful surf will batter eastern New South Wales over the next few days due to an East Coast Low.

While the system has yet to develop, a pool of cold upper level is pushing through the state's inland, causing areas of rain to become heavier to its east throughout the day.

As this cold pool of air interacts with a coastal trough off the coast, a low pressure system is set to start spinning up off the Hunter coast from this afternoon, causing the weather to become more intense.

Winds will whip up noticeably from the afternoon, with wind gusts of up to 100km/h expected along the Illawarra, Sydney and Hunter coasts from this afternoon and into Tuesday, when they could become even stronger as the low deepens.

Rain will also become heavy from the afternoon, focusing on the Illawarra, Sydney and southern parts of the Hunter, before spreading to the Hunter and southern Mid North Coast overnight and into Tuesday.

The Illawarra and Sydney are likely to see falls of 50-150mm across the next 48 hours, however it is in the Hunter and southern parts of the Mid North Coast that will see the heaviest falls. By early on Wednesday, widespread totals of 150-300mm are likely to have fallen across the districts, with possibly heavier falls about the higher terrain around the Barrington Tops. This could lead to minor to major flooding between the Manning Valley and the Central Coast.

Seas will also become large from later today, but will be at their biggest on Tuesday when swells will reach up to 10 foot on Sydney Beaches and 15 foot on south facing Hunter beaches.

On Wednesday, the path of the low becomes more uncertain. The system could move further east causing a gradual easing of wind and showers, or could linger a little further and edge south, leading to another burst of showers on the coast, particularly the Illawarra and South Coast.

Conditions will begin to ease noticeably from Thursday as the low speeds away from the coast, although swell will remain large before becoming smaller on Friday.

- Weatherzone

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