Rain, flooding, damaging winds and damaging surf are all occurring in eastern NSW today as a complex low pressure system spins over the Tasman Sea.

Over the past three days, a deep low pressure trough and a series of small-scale low pressure systems have driven rain, wind and waves into the NSW coast.

In some areas, the rain was heavy enough to cause flooding. Parts of the South Coast and Illawarra districts picked up over 200mm of rain during this event with some places pushing above 300mm. 

The highest totals during the 72 hours to 9am on Monday were 369mm at Nowra Boat Shed and 368mm at Broughton Creek, both in the Lower Shoalhaven River catchment. Nowra's 338mm was its highest three-day total in four years.

This multi-day deluge caused flooding in numerous south coast rivers, including major flooding in the Shoalhaven River. This flood peak moved through Nowra on Monday morning, where the water level rose to within a few centimetres of the town's major flood level.

Image: Flooding on the Sholahaven River at Nowra on Monday morning. Source: @dallirious / Instagram

Damaging winds have also been lashing parts of the NSW coast during the last few days and are continuing in some areas today. Wind gusts reached above 90km/h at Norah Head shortly after 7am and again at 10am.

These powerful winds have been whipping up large and dangerous waves along the NSW coast. A waverider buoy located off the coast of Sydney registered a maximum wave height of 9.63 metres at 11am on Monday. These waves are likely to be causing erosion at some beaches.

Image: Large waves at Clovelly Beach on Monday. Source: @tarek.elgayar / Instagram

At 2pm, a severe weather warning was in place for damaging winds from Sydney up to the Mid North Coast and for damaging surf from the Illawarra to the Mid North Coast.

Wind and rain will ease in eastern NSW on Monday and Tuesday as the low moves away from the coast. The large surf will gradually ease from south to north during the next few days.