The weekend of October 11 and 12 was somewhat uneventful. Both days saw warm maximums around 29C at the Airport and minimums hovered around 15C. Wind speeds picked up on Sunday with a maximum daily gust of 63km/h, the strongest in a week, but that was nothing compared with what was to come.
A severe weather warning was in place for most of New South Wales on Monday. It warned of an intense double low pressure system that included rain, strong winds and storm activity that was moving east across the state. Monday warmed up to 25.7C while northwesterly winds increased further as the front moved in.
Storm activity was building west of the city and it struck in the afternoon. Sydney's west bore the brunt of the storm, but the Airport saw 11.8mm fall, the highest daily total since August 27. The maximum wind gust was 76km/h just before 5:30pm. Temperatures quickly dropped around 7C or 8C also as the winds shifted. Images and a time-lapse of the spectacular looking storm front as it rolled across Sydney can be found here. Views from the Central Coast, north of Sydney, can be found here.
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| The view from Sydney's North Head as the October 13 storm approached the city Source: Daily Telegraph |
Monday's storm was quite dangerous, but Tuesday October 14 and Wednesday the 15th saw Sydney experience probably its most significant weather event so far this year. The low that had been moving east further intensified off the coast and resulted in very heavy rain and very strong southerly winds across the city.
Tuesday failed to go above 20C, the first occurrence since September 21. Very heavy falls were seen across the city throughout the day with the highest totals coming west and south west of the city. The graph below shows the totals in the 24 hours to 10am on October 15. Red areas represent more than 100mm.
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| Rainfall across the Sydney region in the 24 hours to 10am on October 15 Source: Bureau of Meteorology (screenshot unedited from original) |
Sydney Airport recorded its highest daily total of the year on the 14th with 86.0mm. That is more than 30mm higher than the previous highest of 55.2mm from June 6. The Bureau's 24 hours to 9am recording on October 15 of 101.0mm at the Airport is the highest since January 29 last year, the result of a large storm that struck on the 28th.
In addition to the heavy rain, wind speeds reached their highest levels for quite some time. October 14 saw a strongest gust of 107km/h at 9:39pm. That's the strongest since at least the beginning of last year (the oldest wind speed data I have access to). 1:52am on October 15 also recorded a gust at 102km/h. These are the only two days since the start of 2013 to record gusts above 100km/h at the Airport. Wattamolla, on the coast south of the city, recorded a 161km/h gust, or almost 45m/s.
The system also brought rare October snow to the Blue Mountains. Up to 15cm was recorded around Blackheath. Flooding was seen throughout the city, winds uprooted trees and flights were delayed. The tunnel of the M5 Motorway and other roads saw flooding as well as a number of pedestrian tunnels at various railway stations across Sydney. Images and video from the events of October 14 and 15 can be found here.
Looking at temperatures, October 15 saw the coldest October maximum since 2008. It reached only 15.4C at the Airport as strong southerly winds continued during the day. The 14th and 16th were jointly responsible for the month's lowest overall temperature also with minimums of 9.9C. It hadn't been below 10C since September 20.
The days following October 15 were also fairly cool, although a little warmer than the 15.4C recording. Yesterday reached 25.5C, the only day above 23C since the 13th. Strong winds returned today with gusts up to 80km/h and temperatures have hovered around 18C for most of the day. Warmer temperatures above 25C should return to Sydney later this week, however, and it looks set to continue in the same fashion going into early next week.
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