Craig McIntosh, 25 Feb 2017, 2:18 AM UTC
Thunderstorms light up the Sydney night sky
Once the southerly change bumped into a low pressure trough sitting just off the Sydney coast last night, things became electric between the two.
The front reached Sydney around mid-evening on Friday, and instability rose as it combined with a localised trough sitting just off the coast. Lightning was first detected over the Blue Mountains as the air was pushed higher, however later in the evening all the action moved east as thunderstorms with some heavy downpours lingered well into the morning.
Around 10pm thunderstorms were being generated just out to sea and quickly began moving over land. Raindrops from the storms began falling over the city soon after. The storm activity lasted well into this morning, with almost 11,000 strikes recorded to 7am today. 8mm of rain was recorded at Observation Hill between 11pm and 9am.
Gusty rain has accompanied yesterday's southerly change, and since 9am today Sydney has recorded around another 6mm of rain. The highest wind gust of 57km/h was recorded at the airport at 4am this morning.
The wet weather is set to continue in Sydney tomorrow with the chance of early thunderstorms. Rainfall in the range of 20-40mm can be expected before this wet weekend is through.
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