Sydney Weather: Storms hit Sydney suburbs with rain due to stick around for the weekend

ANOTHER Friday night in springtime Sydney, another intense storm front ruining or at least changing the plans of thousands. It’s the latest of severe storm cells to Sydney and the Central Coast with hailstones, heavy rain, damaging winds and flash flooding.

ANOTHER Friday and another storm hits Sydney.

An intense storm front has moved northeast across NSW this afternoon — bringing severe storm cells to Sydney and the Central Coast with hailstones, heavy rain, damaging winds and flash flooding.

Almost half of NSW was included in the Bureau of Meteorology’s warning area for storms.

Two wild — but fortunately short — storm fronts thundered into Sydney and the Central Coast.

A woman photographs storm clouds over Bondi Beach this afternoon. Picture: AAP

McMahons Point gives a great view of the dark clouds rolling in to Sydney. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Tourists in Hyde Park photograph the dark clouds. Picture: Dylan Robinson

They are forecast to affect Toukley, Tuggerah Lake, Cessnock and Gorokan by 4.45pm and Budgewoi, Maitland, Kurri Kurri and Bolwarra by 5.15pm.

Bureau of Meteorology severe weather forecaster Mick Logan said they had classified the storms as severe due to the large amounts of rain which could lead to flash flooding.

The storms which hit the western suburbs are currently moving towards the northern beaches and Central Coast.

Blacktown and Baulkham Hills received 30mm of rain in 30 minutes.

Terrey Hills and Manly were inundated with hail and Narrabeen flash flooded in some areas.

More than 1000 homes were without power in the Bass Hill and Villawood areas, according to Ausgrid.

While the hail stones only measured about 2cm on average, there was plenty of them. Picture: John Grainger

Mona Vale received a heavy dump of hail, rain and strong winds causing minor flooding. Picture: John Grainger

A pile of hail in Mona Vale. Picture: John Grainger

The rain has caused chaos on Sydney’s roads.

The Pacific Highway near Bobbin Head Road in Pymble is flooded with southbound traffic affected.

Traffic was also heavy on Anzac Parade and in Pyrmont approaching the Anzac Bridge.

And any dreams of a weekend at the beach or fun in the sun should be put on hold, with forecasters predicting showers to hang around most of the state until at least Tuesday.

“The storms will move north of Sydney they will largely be affecting the north eastern side of NSW … the worst activity will be on the northern ranges, but there could still be lingering activity in Hunter,” Mr Logan said.

“The back end of the system is slow to clear, we will likely still have showers on Sunday, we might start to see some brighter spells by then.

“But it won’t be nicer weather until next week … probably not great for people that want a nice weekend.”

A woman braves the downpour near Hyde Park. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Tourists pose for photos at Mrs Macquarie's Chair as a storm moves in over the Sydney CBD. Picture: Jonathan Ng

Originally published as Sydney Weather: Storms hit Sydney suburbs with rain due to stick around for the weekend