Sydney hit by severe thunderstorm

Sydney and the Illawarra region were battered by a severe thunderstorm that brought intense rainfall and flooding, causing traffic delays across the greater city on Thursday afternoon.

The storm was expected to continue for 24 hours as the Bureau of Meteorology confirmed the wet weather would go into Thursday evening and could return on Friday morning and into the early afternoon.

The storm is affecting much of the city, including Chatswood.Credit: Nick Moir

The bureau earlier on Thursday warned of a severe thunderstorm that was stretching from the Greater Wollongong area to Sydney Airport, with a wider warning in place from Nowra to the CBD and west towards Blacktown.

“Essentially, we do have a trough inland across NSW and that is likely to move eastwards and off the shore in the next 24 hours,” a spokeswoman said.

“It’s likely to be clear by Saturday, while Sunday may have a few showers return.

“What is making this storm go on for so long is all the right features of a storm coming together,” she said. “The wind direction is right and the atmospheric conditions are right for the thunderstorm.”

In Wollongong, locals had a longer stream of thunderstorms that began on Wednesday and continued into Thursday.

“Because of the way Wollongong is orientated, it tends to act as a focal point for storms; they start thundering away and get caught from the coast,” the weather bureau said.

The storm moved across the city, and two of three westbound lanes on the Western Distributor, past Pyrmont Bridge Road, were closed due to flooding.

Flooding also affected roads in the Illawarra, as well as further north in Kogarah, in Sydney’s south.

Some buses were rerouted to avoid flooded roads, while flooding was also reported in parts of the Royal National Park.

Footage shared in an Illawarra community Facebook group showed a car being swept through flooded waters out to the ocean.

The State Emergency Service responded to more than 705 calls over the past 24 hours.

The south-eastern zone, which mainly includes Illawarra and the Central Coast region had 370 incidents while the Sydney metro area had 309.

Most were from storm damage such as leaking roofs, although there had also been 43 flood rescues from people stuck in their cars.

SES southern zone Deputy Commander Sharon Fox said localised flooding had resulted in multiple roads being closed.

“Conditions right now are very hazardous – a number of schools have closed and school bus trips have been cancelled due to the weather,” she said.

Woonona High School was evacuated earlier in the afternoon as intense flooding hit the school north of Wollongong.

Rain also affected inland parts of the state, including Yass and Orange and Dubbo.

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