Overview
On Wednesday, January 15, New South Wales was hammered by massive thunderstorms that stretched from Glen Innes in the state's north down to Eden, 1000 kilometres away on the Sapphire Coast near the Victorian border.
In Sydney's CBD, 40 millimetres of rain fell between 8-30pm–11.30pm, flooding Town Hall station. Elsewhere in NSW, even heavier downpours inundated places like Eurobodalla on the South Coast, where more than 63 millimetres of rain fell in just one hour.
Damaging winds were also recorded across the state, with gusts as strong as 107 kilometres per hour destroying property and crops in places like Wagga Wagga. Power outages impacted as many as 150,000 homes in Sydney's satellite suburbs and north of the city near Newcastle, with some areas still without power at the time of publishing this report. Sydney airport, where 100 kilometres-per-hour winds were recorded, also suspended flights temporarily.
Sydneysiders flocked to social media to share hundreds of dramatic images of lightning strikes in the heart of the city. Some of the most striking captures depict multiple lightning forks striking the CBD simultaneously.
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned that yet more storms are likely to roll across NSW on Thursday, 16 January and Friday, 17 January, with strong winds and heavy rains forecast. The State of Emergency Service has called for people on the Sapphire Coast in the state's far south to remain indoors until further tempests have passed.
The BOM also issued a warning for surfers to be aware of "large and powerful" conditions up and down the eastern seaboard as high winds continue to lash the NSW coast. However, it also lifted its extreme weather warning on Sydney, stating that the worst of the storms have now passed the city.
For further details of Sydney's weather forecast, visit the BOM website.
Top image: Charles Miller