More wet weather is looming for residents on Australia’s east coast, with hundreds of millimetres of rain forecast to fall over parts of the state on the weekend.
Millions of people were given a rude weather shock earlier this week when warm and sunny conditions gave way to persistent rain and a drop in temperatures.
The sudden change was driven by a coastal trough that has been lingering off the NSW coast for days.
It brought a deluge for some areas of the Central Coast. Nord’s Wharf Oval in the Hunter Valley recorded 93mm in the 24 hours leading up to 9am yesterday.
To the west, Cooranbong in Lake Macquarie recorded its wettest day in 13 years when 52.4mm fell during the same period.
The rain will continue today before it intensifies tomorrow and across the weekend when an upper-level low-pressure system approaches NSW’s north.
Computer modelling is forecasting the largest daily totals across central and north-eastern NSW and southern Queensland on Saturday.
Floods destroy properties across NSW after record-breaking deluge
Between Saturday and next Tuesday, rainfalls of 60mm to 120mm are set to fall on the central and northern NSW coasts, including Sydney. But some parts will record 200mm, forecasters say.
The deluge will then focus on eastern NSW and south-eastern Queensland on Sunday and Monday, with the heaviest falls along the central and northern NSW coastline on Sunday.
Forecasters are warning of potential flood risks for some parts as heavily sodden ground becomes soaked by further downpours.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a hazardous surf warning for the Sydney, Macquarie, Hunter and Illawarra coasts from tomorrow and into the weekend.
