Howling winds overnight will lead to extensive clean-up work today in NSW’s south-east and parts of Victoria, with October heat records also broken in Western Sydney.
Intelligence and warnings officer at the NSW State Emergency Service, Adam Williams, said damaging winds had led to a large amount of fallen trees, branches and roof damage.
Since midday Wednesday over 250 calls were made for assistance regarding storm damage in NSW, particularly in the Greater Sydney area, with Sutherland, Hornsby and Parramatta the busiest SES units.
“Conditions have now eased with the severe weather warning now cancelled, but SES volunteers are out today to clean up their communities,”
Mr Williams said.
“If you see any downed powerlines stay well clear.”
Senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, Angus Hines, told ABC News Breakfast that parts of the country were “absolutely battered” by “howling winds”, particularly Victoria’s mountains, Warrnambool and Melbourne’s CBD.
A gale wind warning remains in place along the Eden coast, as does a strong wind warning for the Byron, Coffs, Illawarra and Batemans coasts on Thursday.
Wind warnings remain for some coastal areas of NSW on Thursday. (ABC News: Abbey Haberecht)
Further records to be confirmed today
Maximum October temperature records were also broken in western parts of Sydney yesterday where it hit almost 40 degrees Celsius in Penrith and Bankstown.
“We did see some records getting set. 37 degrees was the top in the city, but if we look at the greater metro area the highest temperature we recorded yesterday was 39.8 degrees at Bansktown in the south-west,” Mr Hines said.
Very hot temperatures were also recorded through the Central Coast, Mid North Coast and Hunter region.
“We probably will have several records get confirmed a little bit later this morning,” Mr Hines said, noting the BOM will certify any records broken overnight from 9am onwards on Thursday.
NSW is not out of the woods yet however, with high to extreme fire dangers expected to return to parts of the state on Sunday.