Rain has returned to large swathes of New South Wales with multiple flash flooding and severe weather warnings in place over the next three days, as Sydney records five times as much rain as London in the past six months.
Six-hourly rainfall totals could reach 140mm in parts of the NSW south coast on Wednesday afternoon, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.
After a brief respite from wet weather, NSW is expected to cop a drenching on Thursday, when six-hourly totals of up to 140mm could fall across metropolitan Sydney, the Blue Mountains, the Central Coast, the south coast and the Illawarra.
Isolated local rains of up to 300mm could fall over the course of Thursday in some areas, however the broader weather warning is that flash flooding can occur with far less rainfall due to the already-soaked soil across much of the state.
The severe weather warning for heavy rainfall is in place for people in metropolitan Sydney, the Illawarra and the south coast, as well as parts of the Hunter and central and southern tablelands.
The Bureau of Meteorology have issued a Severe Weather Warning for HEAVY RAINFALL for people in Metro, Illawarra, South Coast and parts of Hunter, Central Tablelands and Southern Tablelands Forecast Districts.
— NSW SES (@NSWSES) April 6, 2022
Warning: https://t.co/X2RWJgkdlo
Prepare: https://t.co/X0LgUewhlP pic.twitter.com/wLombqLyOG
Heavy rain will continue on Friday morning, with BoM forecaster Morgan Pumpa warning the current weather – caused by a deepening trough – could extend into much of next week.
“It’s been so wet this year that the chance of flash flooding is possible, and it’s increased by heavy and persistent rain,” he said.
“Things are already so wet, the ground is saturated, so it won’t take much heavy rainfall at all to cause flash flooding.”
Moderate flood warnings are in place for certain areas, including around the Hawkesbury, Nepean and Wollombi rivers. Pumpa noted that flooding predictions could worsen in coming days.
Landslips could also occur, the BoM is warning, with a waterlogged, weaker terrain across much of the state increasing the risk. Earlier this week, a British father and son died from a landslide on a walking track in the Blue Mountains.
The State Emergency Services NSW, in a post on its Facebook page, urged residents to prepare for flash flooding, landslips and falling trees.
In the six months to the end of March, Sydney’s Observatory Hill weather station recorded 1,400.6mm of rain; this included the wettest start to a year since records began in 1859, with 554mm record in March alone.
Sydney’s drenching has prompted comparisons with a notoriously rainy London. London recorded just 267.2mm in the same six-month period.
Weatherzone’s Ben Domensino said Sydney regularly received more rainfall than London – slightly under double – each year.
However, he said the comparison underscored that “Sydney has had an exceptional amount of rainfall to start the year”.
“We know that it’s broken records in eastern NSW and has been persistently heavy for months. We’ve been stuck in those weather patterns.
“Rainfall has been surprisingly heavy even for La Niña, which typically causes heavy rain,” Domensino said.
