Sydney's run of mostly mild weather has come to a blustery, soggy end with heavy rain and damaging winds hitting the city on Friday.
A complex low-pressure system is slowly deepening over the Tasman Sea, bringing belts of rain over Sydney. Wind gusts are starting to pick up, particularly on the coastal strip.
"Winds are going to be peaking in the middle of the day," Rob Sharpe, a meteorologist with Weatherzone, said.
Cronulla has picked up the most rain from the event so far, with about 17mm, while Point Perpendicular on the Illawarra coast has collected almost 60mm, he said.
The Bureau of Meteorology is predicting rainfall of as much as 40mm for the city on Friday, and has issued a severe weather warning for the Sydney Metropolitan, Hunter and Illawarra districts.
"The coast is going to be seeing the worst of all of the conditions: the heaviest rain, the strongest winds and also the dangerous surf," Mr Sharpe said.
Winds iare expected to gust to about 65km/h in the CBD. Since midnight, the strongest winds reached 87km/h just after 8am while Sydney Airport was buffeted by 78 km/h gusts soon after 8.30am.
Weatherzone: Sydney radar
The mercury will struggle to get above 15 degrees for most of the day, with the wind chill factor around lunchtime knocking the perceived temperature down another 2 or 3 degrees, Mr Sharpe said.
The rain is likely to tend to showers in the afternoon but persist into the evening and Saturday morning, he said.
"For anyone heading to Vivid Sydney, it's going to be a cold, wintry night, with the chance of a few showers coming through," Mr Sharpe said.
Saturday will most likely be another cool day with a top of only 17 degrees. The mercury, though, should start to climb back to a relatively balmy 24 degrees by Thursday, with little change of rain from Sunday to then.
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