NSW flooded coastal regions face another day of rain as deluge shifts to Sydney, South Coast

Australia Broadcast Center

22-05-2025

Flood watches and warnings are now current for more than two dozen river systems across eastern New South Wales as a major May deluge tracks down the coast.
The heaviest falls today will be concentrated around Sydney in the morning, before shifting to the South Coast later, and could produce a months' worth of rain in just a few hours.
But while the coastal regions are facing another day of floods, western NSW is rejoicing after the heaviest rain in months finally brought drought relief.
For the fourth consecutive day, Thursday delivered heavy rain to the Mid North Coast, and monthly totals now exceed 650 millimetres at Taree — eight times the average, and the town's wettest May on record with data back to 1882.
Port Macquarie has also been drenched by more than 650mm, its highest May total since at least 1871.
Just in the past week alone, stretches of the ranges have been inundated by more than 650mm, including Comboyne, Careys Peak and Mt Seaview — and to put the extraordinary figures in perspective, that surpasses what Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide, and Hobart normally receive in an entire year.
Relief finally arrived overnight, though, as the low-pressure system responsible for the deluge tracked south towards the Hunter. And while flooding will continue for several days, no further heavy rain will fall over the state's north coast from this event.
While the state's north welcomes clearer skies today, new areas of flooding are now developing to the south.
Rain increased through Thursday across the southern half of the state, and by 8pm, totals along the Illawarra Escarpment and Hawkesbury River were approaching 100mm.
The heaviest rain this morning will impact the central east of NSW, including around the Hunter, Central Coast, Sydney, the Illawarra and the Blue Mountains, where six hourly totals may reach 60mm to 90mm.
This will lead to river rises and flooding along the Hawkesbury-Nepean River and may lead to a minor spill of Warragamba Dam, which on Thursday was sitting on 96 per cent capacity.
As the low moves further south this afternoon, rain will ease around Greater Sydney but increase across the South Coast, Snowy Mountains and Gippsland.
Higher resolution models are indicating 24-hour totals through Friday may exceed 100mm from the Blue Mountains, through the Illawarra to the South Coast — a month's worth of rain in just one day.
The expansion of the soaking has prompted the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) to issue a flood watch for all catchments from Sydney to the Towamba River near the Victorian border.
The last of the heavy falls will clear off the mainland coast overnight, however, the low is now likely to pass close enough to Tasmania on Saturday to bring moderate falls of up to 30mm on the state's east coast.
The good news from this event is it's finally raining over some drought-impacted regions of southern Australia.
Coastal lows normally don't produce significant rain west of the ranges, but a separate low above the surface over western NSW has dragged the Tasman Sea moisture well inland.
Hillston in the Riverina already picked up 22mm to 9am on Thursday, which was remarkably the town's heaviest fall in six months — an indication of the severity of the rain deficits.
Rain continued all day Thursday, and most towns in the Riverina and South Western Slopes received their best falls so far this autumn.
By 8pm, Young had welcomed 19mm, and more than 10mm was recorded at Wagga Wagga, Temora, and West Wyalong.
Showers will continue today across the NSW southern inland, and totals from this event may even near 50mm on the western slopes and 30mm in the Riverina.
This would equate to the best rain in about a year for many areas, and two-day totals may even become the highest in up to two years along parts of the South Western Slopes.
A vigorous cold front will bring widespread showers to south-east Australia early next week, while a cloudband spreads widespread rain across Australia's north-west and interior.
The system should drop around 20mm along the South Australia and western Victorian coast, however, rainfall will drop off across the adjacent ranges, meaning the Riverlands, Murraylands, Wimmera and Mallee see only a millimetre or two.
No other notable rain events are ahead for south-east Australia during the next 10 days, however, the longer-term prospect for winter offers hope of follow-up falls.
The BOM's latest seasonal outlook issued yesterday shows an even or slight swing favouring above-median falls for most of the country — although this forecast is partly reliant on a shift in water temperatures across the Indian Ocean.