The winter cold front that brought damaging winds and blizzards to south-eastern Australia this week is clearing, but the Bureau of Meteorology kept a damaging-wind warning current for the New South Wales coast on Friday afternoon, and the system left record July rainfall behind it.
The Bureau reissued its severe weather warning for damaging winds, product IDN21037, at 2pm on Friday for the Illawarra and parts of the South Coast, Southern Tablelands and Central Tablelands. It forecast westerly winds averaging 50 to 60 km/h with peak gusts to 90 km/h from late Friday morning, easing during the evening.
Elsewhere the warnings have come down. The South Australian warning that ran on Wednesday was no longer current on Friday. The alpine damaging-wind and blizzard warnings across Victoria and the New South Wales high country, in force through Thursday, were forecast to ease from Friday morning. At its peak the front pushed a gust of 113 km/h across Thredbo Top Station, the highest weather station in the country, overnight into Thursday.
The rain was the bigger story in the cities. Adelaide recorded 33 millimetres in the 24 hours to 9am Thursday, its wettest July day in a decade and its wettest day in any month since January 2024, according to Weatherzone, which cited Bureau observations. In the ACT, on the same figures, Tuggeranong's 35.8 millimetres was the heaviest July daily total in 21 years and Canberra Airport's 22.8 millimetres the heaviest in 16.
On the New South Wales South Coast, Ulladulla took more than 200 millimetres overnight, with falls of around 150 millimetres widespread along the coast. Snow fell to low levels across the alps and was forecast to reach about 600 metres in Tasmania by Saturday.
The Bureau expected the winds on the New South Wales coast to ease on Friday evening and the system to clear the mainland over the weekend. Its warnings are being updated through the day; current advice is on the Bureau's website and through the New South Wales State Emergency Service.
