Sydney weather: perfect day to stay indoors as heavy rain hits coast

Good weather — for this pair of black swans and their cygnets as they cross the road in Centennial Park. Photo: Peter Rae

Sydney’s run of mostly mild weather has come to a blustery, soggy end with heavy rain and damaging winds hitting the city on Friday.

A complex low-pressure system is slowly deepening over the Tasman Sea, bringing belts of rain over Sydney. Wind gusts are starting to pick up, particularly on the coastal strip.

“Winds are going to be peaking in the middle of the day,” Rob Sharpe, a meteorologist with Weatherzone, said.

A jogger braves the conditions and takes her dogs for a run at La Perouse on Friday morning. Photo: Peter Rae

Cronulla and Little Bay have picked up the most rain from the event so far, with more than 20mm, while Point Perpendicular on the Illawarra coast collected about 60mm, he said.

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The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting rainfall of as much as 40mm for the city on Friday, and has issued a severe weather warning for the Sydney Metropolitan, Hunter and Illawarra districts.

“The coast is going to be seeing the worst of all of the conditions: the heaviest rain, the strongest winds and also the dangerous surf,” Mr Sharpe said.

Winds are expected to gust to about 65km/h in the CBD. Since midnight, the strongest winds reached 87km/h just after 8am while Sydney Airport was buffeted by 78 km/h gusts soon after 8.30am.

Weatherzone: Sydney radar

The mercury will struggle to get above 15 degrees for most of the day, with the wind chill factor around lunchtime knocking the perceived temperature down another 2 or 3 degrees, Mr Sharpe said.

The rain is likely to tend to showers in the afternoon but persist into the evening and Saturday morning, he said.

“For anyone heading to Vivid Sydney, it’s going to be a cold, wintry night, with the chance of a few showers coming through,” Mr Sharpe said.

Saturday will most likely be another cool day with a top of only 17 degrees. The mercury, though, should start to climb back to a relatively balmy 24 degrees by Thursday, with little change of rain from Sunday to then.

Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.