Large hailstones as wide as 50¢ pieces lashed Sydney on Friday afternoon as severe storms hit the city.
Flights at Sydney Airport were affected by the storm, with passengers told in an announcement that flights had been delayed.
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Hailstones lash Sydney
Damaging winds and hailstones have struck parts of Sydney.
The announcement was made in the domestic terminal just before 3.30pm, one passenger said.
Qantas baggage handlers were called inside the terminal and had a coffee as they waited for the storm to pass.
Sydney Airport said anyone planning to fly out this afternoon should check with their airline to see what's happening.
Strong damaging wind gusts up to 100km/h were forecast as the storm front hits Sydney, Weatherzone meteorologist Joel Pippard said.
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 degrees at 1pm to 27 degrees at 1.30pm.
"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."
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."
The storms are expected to continue through the night and into Saturday morning.
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.
Weatherzone is owned by Fairfax Media, publisher of this website.
The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning at 1.33pm. Photo: Bureau of Meteorology