Sydney-siders bracing for giant hail, lightning and destructive winds

  • February 18, 2020

Severe thunderstorms are expected to batter NSW this afternoon and overnight with giant hail storms, lightning and damaging winds forecast.

With many communities still recovering from heavy rainfall and flash flooding last week, residents are being told to brace for more damaging weather conditions. The storms have impacted Victoria today and are likely to worsen this afternoon before spreading to Queensland tomorrow.

Sydneysiders have been warned to brace for another burst of storm activity, while residents on the NSW Central Coast can expect to cop some of the worst weather.

The Bureau of Meteorology says widespread thunderstorms will arrive on Tuesday afternoon particularly across southeastern and central NSW.

Sydney and Canberra could experience severe storms but the main focus will be the Illawarra region and up towards the Central Coast, meteorologist Dean Narramore said.

“We could have some very dangerous thunderstorms there with very large hail, damaging winds and very heavy rainfall,” Mr Narramore said.

Some places could receive up to 50 millimetres while other areas could miss out altogether.

Two sets of storms are expected to pound the Sydney and Illawarra region over the next 24 hours.

A severe thunderstorm warning has been issued for eastern Victoria including parts of Melbourne due to large hail and heavy rainfall.

A trough developing over western Victoria will move east today, already bringing a large amount of rain and damaging winds across the state.

(Source: 9news)