A man has been struck by lightning and killed at a sheep property in central western NSW, as a series of severe thunderstorms swept across the state and delivered a day of wild weather.
The 22-year-old man was battling a number of small grassfires that had been sparked by lightning on the property in Moolarben, about 40 kilometres north-east of Mudgee, about 3pm on Tuesday when he was hit by a bolt of lightning.
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A 22 year-old man has been struck by lightning and killed while fighting a grassfire in the New South Wales central west after a day of wild weather. Vision: Seven News
A NSW Police spokeswoman said the man was out in the fields with another man and members of the Rural Fire Service, who immediately performed CPR on him.
NSW Ambulance paramedics arrived but the man could not be revived, and he died at the scene.
The tragedy came on a day of wild weather across the state. In Sydney, thunderstorm cells developed with little warning on Tuesday and dumped almost as much rain on the city in an hour as collected in all of January.
Major roads were flooded, lightning strikes closed the airport, a house collapsed and a unit block in Marrickville was under threat due to land slippage.
The drenching continued overnight, with 25 millimetres of rain falling on the city in just 30 minutes between 2am and 2.30am. Sydney's western suburbs were much drier in comparison, with Penrith receiving 3mm of rain and Bankstown 7mm in that time.
At 6am on Wednesday, Sydney's Observatory Hill had received 84mm since 9am on Tuesday. The same station received 48.4mm in the whole of January. The last time the city exceeded 84mm in a day was in June last year.
Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard said the wet weather was expected to continue in Sydney on Wednesday, with the chance of thunderstorms developing again in the morning.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting between 5 and 15mm of rain for Sydney, predominantly in the morning.
"The highest chance of storms are again around the 10am to 11am timeframe, and that's with a strong upper level trough. That's what we saw yesterday, except this time it's coming from the west rather than the south-west," he said.
More rain was expected to fall on coastal locations than in the west, he said.
"It's probably not going to be as severe as yesterday, but it very well could be," Mr Pippard said.
A top of 26 degrees is expected in the city and 27 degrees in the west on Wednesday, before the temperature starts to ramp up again and conditions become drier.
Saturday is forecast to be the hottest day of the week, reaching a maximum of 39 degrees in the city and 43 degrees in the west.
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