Severe thunderstorms are affecting NSW and the ACT this afternoon, with a risk of heavy rain, large hail and damaging winds. A low pressure trough stretching across eastern Australia is triggering the storms, which mainly affected southern and western parts of NSW and the ACT during the early-to-mid afternoon. Further east, a bank of mid to high level cloud had initially prevented storms from forming in the afternoon. Amongst the warnings that were in place at 4:00pm AEDT was a detailed severe storm warning for damaging winds in Canberra CBD. In NSW, damaging wind gusts were recorded at a number of locations during the afternoon, including Forbes (90km/h), Condobolin (92km/h) and Parkes (98km/h) and Nowra (122km/h). Storms are likely to continue spreading further east during the remainder of this afternoon and into the evening as the trough progresses towards the Tasman Sea. Parts of Sydney and other locating in central NSW are likely to be affected by thunderstorms in the coming hours and some of these could be severe. Earlier this morning, cracks of thunder woke residents across Sydney as pre-dawn storms rolled across the Basin, with more than 8000 strikes detected within a 30km radius of Parramatta. With more storms on the way, it looks like lightning and thunder will bookend the day in parts of Sydney.