New weather system to strike eastern Australia with Sydney on ‘southern cusp’ of storms
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Eastern NSW, particularly Northern Rivers, and Gold Coast at high risk for severe thunderstorms and winds on Thursday, according to BoM forecast. Persistent rain and strong winds will sweep across New South Wales into the weekend, the Bureau of Meteorology predicts, with Sydney on the “southern cusp” of the stormy weather.
![[Sydney storms: dashcam footage captures lightning strike near Blue Mountains - video]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/277d362c918c93e499e5f012c5f0354e472fa7f9/0_47_2500_1407/2500.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Angus Hines, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said Sydney’s weather could shift from storms to a “dreary” mix of wind, rain and cloud. It would be “persistently windy” and “quite chilly”, he said. While the intense storms that lashed Sydney on Wednesday had developed in Victoria and swept east, a low-pressure system in the Tasman Sea would feed strong winds and rain on to the east coast of NSW, he said.
That same weather system was expected to affect parts of eastern Victoria and south-east Queensland. The bureau has warned of damaging winds, hail and heavy rainfall for parts of the Gold Coast. Eastern NSW, particularly the northern rivers region, was at the highest risk for severe thunderstorms on Thursday, Hines said, with more heavy rain, damaging winds and possibly large hail expected.
The Hunter and mid-north coast could also expect heavy rainfall and damaging winds over the next 48 hours. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email. On the other side of the country, Western Australia faces the highest risk of a tropical cyclone so far this season, according to Hines.
