The Bureau of Meteorology issued a detailed severe thunderstorm warning for destructive wind and heavy rainfall at 9.17pm Tuesday after analysing weather radars near Hurstville and Kurnell.
It said ‘‘very dangerous thunderstorms’’ were forecast to hit Sydney Airport by 9.45pm, which was likely to result in flash flooding.
The same storm front had resulted in wind gusts of 161km/h at Wattamolla and 115km/h winds at Kurnell about 9pm.
Sydney Airport recorded a wind gust of 95km/h and Sans Souci was bucketed with 59 millimetres of rain within 60 minutes to 9pm.
The storm led to Sydney Airport cancelling some storms last night.
AirservicesAustralia tweeted on Wednesday morning that flight delays were expected to continue during the day and urged passengers to check with airlines for more details.
The Qantas website warned on Wednesday that the severe weather was still causing flight delays.
The airline tweeted that it was working ‘‘24/7’’ to minimise disruptions caused by the storm and thanked travellers ‘‘for your patience with any ongoing delays’’.
Qantas said delays of about one hour were expected during the day.
Qantas flights 411 and 422 to Melbourne, and 502 to Brisbane, had been cancelled; passengers were offered accommodation until the next available flight out of Sydney.
