Storms drench Australia’s eastern seaboard
Severe thunderstorms continued to rage across the Australian eastern seaboard sparking off renewed weather warnings.
Violent storms have battered many eastern parts of New South Wales and Queensland, producing torrential downpours of rain and hail with frequent lightning. With more storms forecast through today, a severe weather warning had been issued for Sydney and its suburbs with flash floods and large hailstone expected to cause delays at the city’s airport.
Earlier storms caused power failures to around 26,000 homes on Sydney’s northern beaches and gave rise to traffic light blackouts, ferry disruptions and local flooding on many roads. The floods also isolated properties in Camden and saw the closure of several bridges over the Nepean River. The storms produced squally winds which gusted to speeds of over 55mph (90km/h), bringing down trees on to houses, power lines and roads.
Southern Queensland is recovering after a storm dumped over 100mm (4 inches) of rain across the Brisbane area producing flash floods that were nearly a foot deep in places.
Meanwhile, in Western Australia, over 40mm (1.6 inches) of heavy rain fell on the city of Perth, breaking a 50 day drought and giving the city its wettest February since 1992.
The scattered thunderstorms across the east of Australia are expected to ease from later today onwards and move offshore into the Tasman Sea.
