Wild winds, showers, rough surf: What to expect from today’s weather

Don’t get blown away! Following a crazy week of severe weather, strap in for high winds, plenty of rain and choppy surf. SEE WHAT’S IN STORE.

Expect a cool, wet and very windy day in Sydney and the NSW east coast on Friday, following a week of wild weather across much of the state.

Late showers are expected in greater Sydney, where temperatures will be in the low to mid-20s with high winds affecting the temperature from 19C around 9am to a ‘feels like’ temperature of 13C in the city.

South-westerly winds between 25-40km/h in Sydney and southerlies up to 35-50km/h are on the cards, with ‘damaging’ winds along the east coast and late showers.

Up the coast, the Bureau of Meteorology has issued a flood watch for the northern rivers, mid north coast, Hunter and Central Coast on Friday afternoon.

Thunderstorms are forecast for the Hunter and Mid North Coast on Friday morning.

Heavy rainfall and thunderstorms will affect those parts throughout the day.

Weather radars showed intense marine wind on Friday morning and warned of large, damaging and powerful surf conditions from Kempsey to Ulladulla, advising caution if boating and fishing.

An intense band of marine wind concentrated on the NSW east coast on Friday morning.

Surf Lifesaving NSW (SLSNSW) has issued a warning notice for the Hunter, Sydney, Illawarra and Batemans coasts, which will travel north to the mid north coast and Macquarie coast from Saturday.

There are indications of highest astronomical tide levels potentially causing ‘nuisance’ flooding in coastal catchments.

A rainy Sussex Inlet on Friday morning. Picture: NSW Government

Dreary and grey at Port Stephens on Friday morning. Picture: NSW Government

SLSNSW CEO Steve Pearce asked swimmers, surfers, anglers and boaties to exercise caution during the “dangerous” conditions.

An existing low pressure trough has troubled NSW since early in the week – the Bureau stating there are months of this hot, wet weather in store, with “above average” rain and heat to continue until April.

Its long-range forecast indicates there will be “above average rainfall” for coastal NSW and “warmer than average days” for southern and eastern parts of the country.

Evenings will not offer any relief from high temperatures as the forecaster says to expect “unusually high overnight temperatures”.

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Originally published as Wild winds, showers, rough surf: What to expect from today’s weather