Developing clouds during the afternoon of 24th September. Photographs by Jimmy Deguara.

Heavy rain was occurring in some areas from around 5pm with thunder and lightning increasing as it approached the Metropolitan area. We traveled through the area for a while longer, but it was getting too dark and wet to photograph anything else so we headed back.

At around 8pm at Oakhurst a storm cell dumped about 20mm in 10 minutes. Hail and 61mm of rain in 35 minutes was reported in the Wentworthville area from a more intense localized storm. The storms moved in a south-easterly direction. Moderate rain continued through the night with 89mm in my gauge by 9am on the 25th.

The low pressure centre intensified off the coast during the night bringing gale force winds and some heavy falls of rain. During the early morning period (dawn), the sky to the north of the Sydney area was totally free of cloud indicating that the main cloud mass had cleared the coast in that region. However, in the region extending from the south-east to the west and north-west, a cloud band was approaching moving east and slowly enveloping the Sydney region. The stratus clouds were moving ahead of the cloud mass mainly in the region where rain had begun falling. An important clue to indicate that the low was to the east or to the north-east and strengthening was the increasing strength of the southerly winds. It would be interesting to see what the winds were in the Northern Suburbs region at this time at various heights of the atmosphere.

The main cloud band is moving overhead to the northeast with stratus from the south.

Our observations indicate that this approaching cloud band was the back end of the hook circulation of the low. It dumped most of the heavy rain over the western suburbs up to mid-morning. At this stage, brief sunshine occurred allowing the middle level cloud to be observed briefly. It indicates that this band was moving towards the coast. But the southerly airstream persisted dumping more rain to heavy rain but easing and becoming less frequent later.

Media Reports

Gale force winds and torrential rain damaged houses and flooded roads in many areas. Blackouts to about 44,000 homes were caused by the winds which were gusting to over 100km/h. A 40 square metre section of roof was ripped off Central Station.

During the event the State Emergency Service (SES) were called out about 2100 times.

A $10 million damage bill is expected from the storm.

Warragamba's 9000 square kilometre catchment received up to 156mm of rain which boosted the dam level by 10% to about 75% of capacity.

Click here to view the rainfall isohyet map of Sydney for the 48 hours to 9am 26th September 1995

Rainfall Readings for Sydney and Surrounding Areas for the 24 hours to 9am on the 25th and 26th of September 1995

Suburb/Town	25th Sep	26th Sep
Avalon	38	51
Bankstown	103	24
Belrose	48	68
Bexley	145	54
Cronulla	156	64
Epping	73	48
Frenchs Forest	43	82
Gordon	65	58
Lucas Heights	148	45
Mosman	49	75
Newport	32	58
Oatley	128	48
Parramatta	110	29
Randwick	69	68
Riverview	87	n/a
Sydney	74	71
Sydney Airport	115	65
Turramurra	74	57
Berowra	46	63
Glenorie	43	46
Liverpool	104	22
Merrylands	112	36
Oakhurst	89	27
Penrith	85	n/a
Richmond	76	31
Seven Hills	112	29
Gosford	n/a	78/2
Wyong	32	68
Peats Ridge	36	52
Nobbys Head	12	38
Norah Head	34	50
Mangrove Mt.	41	56
Berry	140	51
Bowral	128	41
Darkes Forest	132	68
Greenwell Point	98	22
Kiama	98	37
Minto	115	n/a
Moss Vale	115	46
Nowra	122	30
Robertson	186	94
Wollongong	95	42
Bodalla	91	0
Candelo	202	0
Blackheath	88	32
Katoomba	104	26
Kurrajong Hts	120	10
Lithgow	46	15
Mt. Boyce	69	25
Oberon	77	3
Springwood	83	7

Synoptic Charts

Synoptic Charts provided by the Bureau of Meteorology

MSL Analysis 1 pm Eastern Standard Time 23rd September

MSL Analysis 1 pm Eastern Standard Time 24th September

MSL Analysis 1 pm Eastern Standard Time 25th September