Wild storm whips Sydney, more damaging weather looms

A wild storm that whipped Sydney has downed trees and prompted hundreds of calls for assistance, with further extreme weather to follow on Friday.

The NSW SES responded to 370 incidents around the state, beginning at 3pm on Thursday, with 215 in Sydney.

SES intelligence and warning officer David Pedersen said about a quarter of those calls came from around the city’s Northern Beaches and were mostly for downed trees, with no reports of flooding.

More than 1300 Ausgrid customers remained without power on Friday morning after the storm knocked out electricity, primarily on the Northern Beaches and Central Coast.

The storm drenched Four Pines Park at Brookvale and knocked out power ahead of the round four NRL match between the Manly Sea Eagles and Sydney Roosters, but the match went ahead when conditions cleared.

Chaos on public transport followed as commuters faced major delays on metro and train services from the storm that hit during peak hour.

Services have mostly returned to normal on Friday morning.

Damaging surf, large powerful seas and gale force winds are expected along Sydney’s coastline on Friday, stretching north to the Mid North Coast and south to Victoria.

“Possible blizzard conditions” in alpine parts of the state’s south are also possible on Friday morning, but are expected to ease into the weekend as the vigorous low driving the wild weather moves offshore.

Meanwhile, a total fire ban is in place in the north of the state in the New England and Northern Slopes regions amid high fire danger.

Rockfishers, boaters and swimmers are also warned to avoid the hazardous surf, which is expected to continue into the weekend along the coast.

Swells whipped up on Thursday and surfers took to Cape Solander, off Kurnell in Sydney’s south, where videographer Jye Zap captured the “heavy slabs”.

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