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Flash floods in Sydney, Illawarra and Central Coast with weekend deluges

Source Weatherzone Sun 18 Jan 2026

Intense and heavy rainfall on Saturday and early on Sunday has brought flash flooding to parts of the Greater Sydney Metropolitan region. Rainfall rates between 80 and 140mm in one to three hours were registered across parts of Sydney’s Northern Beaches and Central Coast on Saturday afternoon and evening. In some areas, these rainfall rates are comparable to the tropics and are equivalent to one in 200-to-500-year events. This intense rainfall was caused by a deep feed of moist easterly winds coming off the very warm Tasman Sea, directed over the region by a coastal trough. Video: 6-hourly rainfall estimates and rain gauge observations since 9am on Saturday morning. Further heavy falls have continued overnight, with many locations experiencing their heaviest rain in one to two years. Notable 24-hour rainfall accumulations to 9am Sunday include: 346mm at Palm Beach Golf Club 264mm at Great Mackeral Beach 260mm at Wattamolla 250mm at Pearl Beach 242mm at Woy Woy 209mm at Ettalong 194mm at Avalon 180mm at Terrey Hills (wettest day on record for the station, with records since 2005) 129mm at Norah Head (wettest January day on record, with records since 1996, and wettest day since October 2020 – 5 years ago) 134mm at Wisemans Ferry (wettest day since March 2021 – nearly 5 years ago) 124mm at Sydney Obs Hill (wettest January day since 1988 – 38 years ago) 103mm at Bankstown (wettest January day since 2001 - 25 years ago) It was the wettest January day on record (records since year) for these stations: Camden Aiport (140mm - since 1943), Penrith (105mm - since 1996), Mount Boyce (142mm - since 1995), Campbelltown (126mm - since 2007) and Gosford (125mm - since 2014) Over 90 locations across NSW with over 100mm Image: Estimated 24-hour rainfall accumulations and rain gauge observations since 9am on Saturday across the Greater Sydney Metropolitan region. Flash flooding across the region has disrupted road and train networks, with Sydney Trains having to halt rail movements between the Central Coast and Sydney. Flooding, combined with strong winds, has caused trees to fall across roads, houses and powerlines, with the SES and power networks responding to thousands of calls for help and outages. Flood prone areas like Narrabeen Lagoon in Sydney’s Northern Beaches have also been evacuated. Over 19,000 lightning strikes have also been recorded within 100km of Sydney since midnight on Friday, most of which were over the northern suburbs and Central Coast areas. Heavy rainfall continues to move into the Sydney Basin this Sunday morning, but conditions are set to improve as the day goes on. As seen in the animation below, the heaviest falls should contract north and offshore into the afternoon, with showers and more isolated heavy rain expected into Monday. Video: 6-hourly rainfall rates and 10m wind speeds according to the high-resolution ACCESS-C Sydney computer model. Keep track of the latest weather warnings on the Weatherzone Weather Warning page. - Weatherzone © Weatherzone 2026