Large hailstones as wide as 50¢ pieces could lash Sydney on Friday afternoon and into the evening, as the city braces for severe storms.
Strong damaging wind gusts up to 100km/h are forecast as the storm front hits Sydney this afternoon, Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard said.
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Hailstones lash Sydney
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Hailstones lash Sydney
Damaging winds and hailstones have struck parts of Sydney.
By early afternoon Penrith had already seen hail and strong winds as a cool change swept east over the Blue Mountains.
Penrith dropped almost 10 degrees in half an hour, from 36.5 at 1pm to 27 degrees at 1.30pm.
The storms could dump hailstones up to three centimetres in diameter in some areas, Mr Pippard said.
Gusty winds will also threaten houses and suburban areas.
"Trees coming down is the big worry - large tree branches coming down and blocking the roads," Mr Pippard said.
"It's possible telephone poles could come down. Stay away from power lines that have fallen down."
The storms are forecast to hit the southern suburbs by 2pm and reach the CBD by 3pm.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 1.33pm. Photo: Bureau of Meteorology
Mr Pippard said Sydneysiders driving home should be very careful.
"Take extreme caution, slow down, use your headlights and be aware of your surroundings."
The combination of strong winds and large hail could cause windows to smash.
"Stay away from the windows particularly where the wind is coming from."
Mr Pippard described the conditions producing the large hailstones.
"Basically you need a particularly violent storm with a lot of wind sheer moving vertically up and down."
"The longer the hail stays up in the clouds and builds up in size, the larger the hail becomes before falling.
"The more violent the storm the larger hail you get."
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Rob Taggart said Sydney was unlikely to get the same level of flash flooding as early last week.
"The flood risk is very minor as the storms will be moving through very quickly," Mr Taggart said.
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