'Dynamic' weather to raise flood and beach erosion fears
NSW's latest bout of wild wintry weather will bring the risk of flooding to parts of the South Coast and generate a powerful swell that could worsen recent beach erosion near Sydney.
The Bureau of Meteorology has issued a severe weather warning for heavy rain and damaging wind gusts, mostly for the South Coast region as a complex low pressure system barrels across the state from the north-west to the south-east.
A soggy day to take the canine crew for a walks in Queens Park in Sydney's east.Credit:Edwina Pickles
The bureau also issued a flood watch for rivers in regions such as the St Georges Basin, Shoalhaven and Queanbeyan. Moderate to major flooding is possible for the Bega River from Saturday.
"It's a really unusual system," said Ben Domensino, a senior meteorologist at Weatherzone.
Along with widespread rain, snow has fallen in the Flinders Ranges in South Australia on Friday, while Tasmania recorded its lowest temperature – minus 14.2 degrees at Liawenee – and the equal lowest for anywhere in Australia for the past nine years, Mr Domensino said.
Sydney will dodge most of the rain although showers will return over the weekend and linger into Tuesday.
Strong winds are also forecast for both Saturday and Sunday, and some large waves by Monday.
A big swell will likely bring more damaging surf to Sydney's northern beaches and the Central Coast that have been hammered in recent weeks, Helen Kirkup, a bureau forecaster, said.
Wintry gloom descends of Parramatta Park in Sydney but the rain should ease off during the weekend.Credit:Kate Geraghty
The heaviest rainfall will be along the South Coast with totals possibly exceeding 200 millimetres. That's the second such bout in a fortnight in an area that largely missed out on drought-breaking rains.
Also collecting some rain at least has been the state's far-west. "Broken Hill is very excited," Ms Kirkup said. The 20-plus millimetres, though, have been enough to cut off some areas including the village of Silverton, she said.
Sydney will be on the northern edge of this weekend's rain, with showers likely to linger into next week.Credit:Janie Barrett
The cold weather and moisture has also brought snow to the mountains in recent days, Mr Domensino said. By early next week, higher peaks in the NSW Alps could collect as much as a metre of snow this weekend, building on relatively shallow foundations for this time of year.
After a few days of relatively calm conditions in the middle of next week, another strong cold front will move across Australia from the west.
"The right ingredients are there for another period of dynamic weather for NSW," Mr Domensino said. "We could see another low develop in the Tasman Sea by late next week."
At this stage, the climate models offer different views of what will happen when the cold air meets the warmer air over the Tasman Sea, Ms Kirkup said.
The model projections are "really all over the place", she said.
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