Residents of Sydney and towns along large sections of the NSW coast have awoken to fallen trees, wild winds, dangerous surf and areas of heavy rain on Thursday morning.

The culprit is a low pressure system over the Tasman Sea which is driving a deep layer of moisture-laden air onto the NSW coast, where persistent showers have fallen during the last 24 hours, some of them very heavy.

The rain

• Sydney had 25mm in the gauge at Observatory Hill by 9 am Thursday, the heaviest drop in two months since the deluge that flooded large parts of the Hawkesbury-Nepean basin on the city's western outskirts in mid-to-late March.
• But the heaviest rain has been south of Sydney. Mongarlowe, a tiny village on the southern tablelands east of Braidwood, recorded 195mm, its heaviest rain since February last year. Anything over about 100 mm is a significant fall in the area, as the town of 100 residents is situated just west of the coastal escarpment.
• Nowra recorded 113mm, its heaviest daily fall since August last year. Falls of 80-120mm were recorded across the Shoalhaven area.
• A severe weather warning is in place for heavy rain along the Illawarra and South Coast.

The wind

Wednesday night and the early hours of Thursday morning were dangerously windy along parts of the NSW coast, especially near Sydney. Some of the strongest overnight wind gusts recorded by 9 am Thursday morning included:

• Wattamolla 104km/h at 6:34am
• North Head 83km/h at 7:46am
• Sydney Airport 80km/h at 7:26am

Image: Definitely a good day to avoid rock fishing. Source: Pixabay.

The surf

• The low pressure system is also whipping up hazardous surf along the coast.
• Swells are forecast to reach 4 to 5 metres by Friday from the Hunter coast to the NSW south coast.
• A Hazardous Surf Warning is in place for the Hunter Coast, Sydney Coast, Illawarra Coast, Batemans Coast and Eden Coast. So that’s basically everything south of Newcastle through to the VIC border.

The outlook

This wet weather will continue through Thursday before easing on Friday and clearing most areas by the weekend. So if your world is anything like this reporter’s, midweek soccer training is off, but the weekend game will likely go ahead.