Five rapid southeasterly storm cells brought damaging winds, hailstones and heavy rainfall yesterday afternoon across most parts of Sydney.
Due to such weather conditions, residents were warned to stay careful as giant hailstones measuring as much as 8cm expected to hit Sydney’s northwestern region.
Some of the storms developed into dangerous supercells, a major sign to a tornado. This led the NSW Bureau of Meteorology to upgrade its thunderstorms warnings.
Hail bigger than 3cm in diameter was observed near Mount Kembla, while more giant hail of 5cm in diameter was recorded at Hornsby and Normanhurst.
In wake of these thunderstorms from the west, temperatures in Sydney plunged by 10 degrees. Moreover, there has been lighting for about 30 minutes along with hail.
Yesterday’s storms followed the significant damage which was caused by severe weather on Friday. About 8000 homes and businesses without power yesterday morning and the majority of them were on Central Coast.
All the modes of public transport were damaged largely due to these thunderstorms.
There has been 10 days above 35°C at Sydney’s Observatory Hill, which broke all weather records back to the early 19th century. This summer is set to be one of the hottest on record in New South Wales.
According to weathermen, today is expected to be cloudy with a maximum of 24°C. Possibilities of rain and thundershowers are likely during early afternoon hours, with conditions clearing throughout the week.
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