NSW Braces For Flash Flooding And Severe Thunderstorms As Wild Weather Lashes The State

NSW is on alert for flash flooding and violent thunderstorms as severe weather lashes the state.

The NSW emergency services minister, Steph Cooke, warned on Thursday, the threat of flash flooding was imminent.

"We are seeing challenges on multiple fronts across New South Wales at present, across the western parts of the state we got multiple river systems that are in flood to some extent, whether that be minor right through to major," she told ABC News Breakfast.

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More than 100mm of rain has been dumped across the state overnight, putting 47 localities on flood alert, along with warnings of riverine and flash flooding across inland NSW, Greater Sydney, and the Hunter Region.

While coastal catchments and the Hawkesbury Nepean River could see minor to moderate flooding over the weekend.

"Our areas of most concern continue to be the west of the state where we did see significant rainfall yesterday. That has moved over metropolitan Sydney overnight, and in the last 24 hours, we’ve had 240 calls for assistance with 120 of those being across the greater Sydney area," NSW SES assistant commissioner, Sean Kearns told the ABC

"The ones for the greater Sydney area are mainly for leaking roofs and trees down, and out in the west of the state, it was around flooding operations and the like. During that time, we’ve also had four flood rescues.

- NSW SES Assist Comm Sean Kearns

With further rain expected to already saturated catchments, communities around Gunnedah, Wee Wah, Warren, Dubbo, Bathurst, Nyngan and Cobar and some areas of the Hunter are being urged to prepare for possible flooding.

Meanwhile, Sydney will likely set a new annual record for rainfall by the weekend with falls of up to 49mm in the CBD overnight. The record stands at 2194mm.

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