A cold front sweeping across NSW has ended a record run of warm winter days and brought the promise of snow and heavy rainfall to parts of the state.
A severe weather warning has been issued for a swathe of the eastern seaboard between Gosford on the Central Coast to Batemans Bay on the south coast.
Damaging winds gusts in excess of 90km/h are possible from late Tuesday onwards, Mr McDowell warned, along with hazardous surf and coastal erosion.
Thunderstorms are also possible.
Inland areas haven’t been spared the wild weather, with extreme wind – described as a mini-tornado by locals – ripping the roof off a house in Orange in the central west.
The bureau is investigating what caused the freak weather event, Mr McDowell said.
“The maximum winds recorded in Orange, on our observations, was 28 km/h, so it looks like it was a very localised, small scale event,” he said.
Conditions across the state are expected to ease after the systems driving the wet weather move offshore on Wednesday.
Much of NSW has enjoyed a stint of unusually warm weather, with Sydney setting a new winter record of 15 days above 20C.
But a cold snap has reversed that trend, with temperatures plummeting and snow expected in parts of the state.
“In Sydney, we’re seeing a peak of 14 degrees today, which is very different than the 27 or 28 recorded over the weekend,” Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Hugh McDowell told AAP on Tuesday.
“There will be a kind of a slow recovery in temperatures in the latter part of the week… (but in Sydney) we don’t see anything above 20C until Sunday.”
Snow is likely across much of the tableland areas, with places like Katoomba and Guyra expected to receive a dusting.
Elsewhere, widespread rainfall of 30-50mm is expected in the 48 hours from Tuesday, with up to 90mm possible in some areas.
AAP
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