A tornado could soon hit Sydney as severe storms carrying damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rain smash the city.
A tornado could make its way over parts of Sydney on Thursday afternoon as dangerous thunderstorms roll across the city.
Damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rain are bearing down on Sydney, with the Bureau of Meteorology warning a tornado could push across areas west of Penrith heading towards Blacktown.
“We’ve had quite an escalating storm situation within Sydney metropolitan area. As of around a half an hour ago, we have seen rotation within a thunderstorm which is moving through,” senior meteorologist Jordan Notara told 2GB radio on Thursday afternoon.
“We haven’t as yet had any observations on the ground but the signatures that we are seeing on the radar are indicative of something that will produce damaging … wind gusts, large giant hail, again, quite a dangerous situation.”
Severe thunderstorm warnings have been issued for people in the Blue Mountains/Hawkesbury, Gosford/Wyong, Sydney, Wollondilly/Wingecarribee and greater Wollongong areas.
The bureau warns severe thunderstorms were detected on the weather radar near Wisemans Ferry, Appin, the Yengo National Park northwest of St Albans, St Albans and Badgerys Creek at 3.15pm on Thursday.
The storms were moving towards the southeast and were forecast to affect Wollongong, Richmond, Campbelltown and Penrith by 3.45pm, and Parramatta, Gosford and Mona Vale by 4.15pm.
Forecasters said damaging winds, large hailstones and heavy rainfall would likely lead to flash flooding.
A severe weather warning remains in place for almost the entire NSW east coast, from Yass up to Grafton and as far west as Mudgee.
“At this stage the thunderstorm warning is for damaging wind gusts and large hail, there’s also a risk we could see some intense bursts of rainfall with these storms,” weather bureau meteorologist David Wilke said.
“We have a fairly broad areas that’s conducive to thunderstorm development (on Thursday).
“Ahead of the front there’s quite a areas of moist, unstable air.
“We’ll have some areas that get quite a bit of rainfall, significant wind gusts and even some hail, and other areas that could be a couple of kilometres away might not get much.
“The storm activity is expected to persist and continue through the evening, particularly in the northeast.
“The risk for severe thunderstorms doesn’t fully abate for the state until Friday afternoon.”
Early morning thunderstorms have already delivered 20mm to 30mm of rain in parts of Canberra and the ACT.
Earlier, a flash flooding alert was been issued for Queensland’s southeast corner as a monster storm threatened to drop “tennis ball sized hail” when it reforms over the region on Thursday afternoon.
The nation’s east coast woke to a deluge on Thursday, with heavy rain pelting Northern NSW, Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne and Tasmania overnight.
Brisbane, the Gold Coast, and Toowoomba had already been smashed for several hours by dawn. Sky News Weather meteorologist Alison Osborne said weeks worth of rain had fallen in Brisbane in mere hours, with some suburbs reporting close to 90mm.
Severe thunderstorms were detected on the weather radar near the area west of Esk with a cell quickly moving east, bringing heavy rainfall that has led to flash flooding south of Brisbane.
Emergency services also reported a series of minor wet weather crashes across the state’s south east, including a five-car pileup on the Pacific Motorway at Eight Mile Plains.
“Dalby copping an absolute monster at the moment,” local resident Adam Ogden said, the Courier Mail reported.
“Rain has settled in. POURING in Brisbane. Visibility poor so take it easy on the roads,” wrote 9 News journalist Jess Millward.
However, worse may be yet to come.
The Bureau of Meteorology was tipping severe storms to fire up again after lunch as south east Queensland and northern NSW warm up, with large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain a possibility.
Forecaster Jonathan How said the nature of the cell meant predictions could be “hit and miss”, but Thursday was nonetheless the “peak danger day” of the current wild weather system.
Ms Osborne backed up Mr How’s assessment, tipping the storm system to regroup in the afternoon and pose a particular threat to the southern inland of the Sunshine State.
“We could see a double whammy over the southern inland with afternoon thunderstorms,” Ms Osborne said.
“All the ingredients are there. The atmosphere is just prime for storms at the moment.”
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) had already warned severe thunderstorms and massive hail could be on the way on Thursday as part of a huge weather system washing over the east coast.
There is a good chance of more storms in Sydney and Melbourne, the BOM said.
Gale force wind alerts were also live for South Australia as deep low pressure system centres moves over southwest Eyre Peninsula coast.
Damaging winds, averaging 50 to 65 km/h at times with peak gusts of 90 to 100 km/h, are forecast in the warning area during Thursday.
Areas of raised dust are also possible on Thursday
Heavier than expected summer rainfall across the nation’s north and northeast is looking more likely this summer after the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) on Tuesday raised its ENSO outlook from a La Nina “watch” to “alert”.
The bureau said continued cooling in the tropical Pacific Ocean throughout September – and subsequent warmer oceans near Australia – had boosted the chances of La Nina from 50 per cent to 70 per cent, roughly three times the normal likelihood of an event forming in any year.
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