Sydney on track to receive month’s worth of rain in first week of May, bureau warns

Sydney has experienced a wet start to May as some parts of NSW recorded record rainfall. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

The wet start to May for much of New South Wales is likely to continue for another week, with a severe weather warning for the state’s South Coast and flash flooding on the central coast.

Sydney’s Observatory Hill had, by Sunday morning, recorded 92.8mm of rain this month – and was fast approaching the May average of 117.4mm.

“We’re nearly at the month total already, so depending on how things unfold today, we may by tomorrow [Monday] morning be able to make a statement that we may have already reached a month’s worth of rainfall,” the Bureau of Meteorology’s Jordan Notara said.

Cronulla, in the city’s south, recorded 69mm in the 24 hours to 9am on Sunday. Point Perpendicular at Jervis Bay hit a new record after recording 143mm of rain in the past 24 hours – the highest 24-hour observation recorded in the month of May since 2003.

The bureau issued a severe weather warning for the Illawarra area south of Sydney on Saturday and into Sunday, with residents in Wollongong, Bulli, Port Kembla, Albion Park, Kiama and Huskisson advised to avoid unnecessary travel amid forecasts of heavy rainfall.

Flash flooding was affecting localised pockets along the coast, with the NSW state emergency service rescuing a driver from the roof of a car amid flooding in Tea Gardens on the state’s central coast early on Sunday morning.

Thunderstorms were forecast for the entire north coast of NSW on Sunday, with severe storms likely in the Northern Rivers. The Byron coast was issued a hazardous surf warning for Sunday.

The bureau’s Jordan Notara said the weather front affecting the Illawarra was heading north, with heavier, persistent falls moving towards Sydney and the central coast followed by showers up and down the east coast lasting well into next week.

“There’s no clear trend of significant dry weather in the modelling,” he said. “It’s showing that shower activity in the east for at least the next seven days. It is basically a weather pattern which is conducive to seeing showers across the 24 hours each day.”

The NSW SES had responded to 95 calls for emergency assistance, most seeking for sand bags in preparation for flash flooding.

The service’s spokesperson, Ben Deacon, said 36 of the emergency calls were in the Shoalhaven and Illawarra where the severe weather warning was in place. There were 22 in the Sydney metro area.

In Brisbane, storms were forecast on Sunday followed by showers on Monday’s public holiday.

A high-pressure system in the Melbourne area was delivering stable and mild weather, Notara said.

Parts of parched Western Australia were coming to the close of a welcome wet week, with the wheatbelt town of Wandering recording its highest May rainfall in more than 82 years and the most rainfall the town had seen in 13 months, according to Weatherzone.