Southerly busts Sydney’s big melt

Sydney sweltered through its hottest day in more than a year as the mercury topped 40C across most of the city before storms that generated hundreds of calls to the State Emergency Service.

Sydney sweltered through its hottest day in more than a year after the mercury topped 40C across most of the city, but the Harbour City has escaped a full-blown heatwave for now.

Temperatures rose as high as 43C in parts of western Sydney on Tuesday before a “southerly buster” swept north over the city and killed the heat with gusts up to 90km/h.

The afternoon’s cool change brought severe thunderstorms and warnings of damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall for Sydney, the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury and Central Coast as far as Gosford, leaving energy providers on edge.

A NSW State Emergency Service spokeswoman told The Daily Telegraph crews had been called to 460 incidents across the state, including 345 in the Sydney metropolitan area.

These included an incident in Berala, where a tree brought down power lines and temporarily trapped residents inside a unit complex.

UK visitors Emma Hollas and Francesca Delgrosso arrived in Australia on Tuesday morning and headed straight to cool off at Coogee Beach. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

The electricity grid survived the heat of the day intact, but severe weather overnight brought the bigger threat.

“We cover western Sydney and our network is built to be resilient and withstand temperatures like we’ve seen today, and we’ve had no major issues,” an Endeavour Energy spokesman said.

Twins Zaynen and Taegan-Love McCarthey at Penrith Beach. Picture: Rohan Kelly

Two-year-old Brooklyn Basha at Penrith Beach. Picture: Rohan Kelly

“We do have emergency plans that we stand up during storms, which include having crews on standby to respond to outages causes by high winds and lightning.”

Ausgrid – which covers the Sydney’s east – was also preparing to respond to fallen power lines and lightning strikes on Tuesday afternoon as the weather worsened, rushing crews to the Central Coast as the storm knocked out power to 6500 homes and businesses by 5pm.

“Our emergency crews have been on standby (throughout the day) and … we remain on standby, especially if the wind gets up,” an Ausgrid spokeswoman said.

Throughout the day beaches and swimming pools were packed from Pondi to Bondi as Sydneysiders attempted to beat the heat, with leaf litter and storm run-off failing to dissuade swimmers from taking a dip in Coogee’s ocean baths.

Severe heat impacted much of NSW on Tuesday. Picture: Bureau of Meteorology

Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Jonathan How said many parts of western Sydney recorded highest temperatures in more than a year.

“The highest temperature recorded was at Badgerys Creek, which got to 43.3C just after 3.30pm yesterday afternoon,” he said.

“Sydney Airport and Penrith both got to 42.5C.

“Most suburbs did hit 40C, but we didn’t actually get to 40C in Sydney which topped out at 35.5C, it was cooler along the coast where that sea breeze kicked in.”

The mercury plummeted in mere minutes as a southerly buster rolled up the coast in what Mr How described as a “classic summer set-up for Sydney”, dropping back below 26C as the system hit the southern suburbs around 3pm.

Crowds flocked to Bondi Beach as temperatures climbed on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s scorcher. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

Chris Minns issued a dire warning to parents. Picture: Getty Images

“Thankfully on Wednesday we’ll have a much cooler day, but there is also the risk of thunderstorms again because it is quite an unstable atmosphere,” he said.

Premier Chris Minns warned of serious health risks, including heat stroke, heat stress and cardiac arrest.

“Whatever you do, take your kids with you,” he said.

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Originally published as Southerly busts Sydney’s big melt