NSW wild weather: SES responds to 2,800 incidents as vigorous coastal low lashes state
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The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
‘Bomb cyclone' causes flooding, power outages in Australia's east
A powerful coastal storm has caused widespread disruption across eastern Australia, leading to significant flooding, power outages, and transport chaos in NSW. The 'bomb cyclone', described as a vigorous coastal low by the Bureau of Meteorology, intensified with over 150mm of rain and winds up to 125kmph, with warnings for damaging winds and dangerous surf continuing. Key concerns include rising rivers, advice-level flood warnings for areas like Camden and Penrith, and the Warragamba Dam nearing capacity, threatening downstream flooding. Around 30,000 homes and businesses experienced power outages, with nearly 9,000 still without electricity, while Sydney Airport saw 140 flight cancellations and major disruptions to rail and ferry services. Emergency services have responded to nearly 3,400 incidents, including flood rescues, as experts note the increasing frequency of such severe weather events, linked to unusually warm ocean waters.
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Thousands of Australians without power and flash flood warnings in place after ‘bomb cyclone'
Emergency crews are scrambling to keep up with rising rivers and widespread damage as a powerful coastal storm battering eastern Australia leaves roads flooded, trees fallen and tens of thousands of people without power. The storm system, initially referred to as a ' bomb cyclone', intensified overnight on Tuesday and dumped more than 150mm rain in parts of coastal New South Wales and triggered damaging winds reaching 125kmph. The Bureau of Meteorology warned of damaging winds and dangerous surf continuing into Thursday morning, with gusts of up to 100kmph still possible inland. A coastal hazard warning remained in place for the entire NSW coastline, with waves of up to 7 metres forecast to pound beaches from Seal Rocks to the Victorian border, threatening severe coastal erosion. Flooding is now a key concern as rivers across Sydney's west and the state's south coast rise sharply. The NSW SES has issued advice-level flood warnings for Camden, Penrith and North Richmond, with the Nepean and Hawkesbury rivers expected to rise rapidly overnight. Authorities also warned that the Warragamba Dam – Sydney's largest water reservoir – was approaching full capacity and would likely spill by Thursday morning, raising fears of downstream flooding similar to past flood events in western Sydney. In a statement, WaterNSW said the expected overflow would be 'moderate', with a peak spill rate of around 60 gigalitres a day, though the exact volume would depend on how much more rain fell across the catchment today. Power outages have affected around 30,000 homes and businesses, with Endeavour Energy reporting about 400 electrical hazards caused by fallen trees and powerlines. While crews restored power to most areas through the day, nearly 9,000 customers remained in the dark. 'We hope to get over 80 per cent of those customers that are currently affected back on tonight,' David Campbell, general manager of safety and operations at Endeavour Energy, told ABC. 'There will be some customers unfortunately that will be without power tonight, we will get all of them back on tomorrow.' Transport chaos has deepened with 140 flights cancelled at the Sydney airport, following 145 cancellations on Tuesday. Major rail lines have been suspended by fallen trees and power failures, and ferry services across Sydney Harbour have faced widespread disruptions. Roads across Greater Sydney and the Illawarra remain littered with debris, with 20 closures reported at the peak of the storm. Emergency services have responded to nearly 3,400 incidents since the wild weather began, including 10 flood rescues. NSW SES deputy commissioner Debbie Platz said the storm's southern flank was the current area of greatest concern, particularly around Sussex Inlet, Burrill Lake and Shoalhaven, with conditions expected to worsen into Thursday. Experts say repeated flooding events are becoming more frequent and more psychologically and financially damaging in Australia. 'Any experience of flooding can have harmful psychological impacts but we know it's even worse when people go through multiple events, especially back to back like we're starting to see more often,' Dr Lauren Vinnell of Massey University said. Climate experts point to unusually warm ocean waters off Australia's east coast as a key driver of this storm's intensity. Dr Martin Jucker of UNSW said: 'The very high water temperatures off the eastern Australian coast would help such systems become intense by providing the necessary moisture from the warm ocean surface.' While some people have referred to the storm as a ' bomb cyclone ' – a term used internationally when a low-pressure system deepens rapidly – Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has avoided using it. Senior meteorologist Jonathan How told Nine's Today programme that they did not really use the term much. 'We just talk about a low pressure system deepening very quickly because 'bomb' can sort of create a little bit more panic,' he explained, adding that this made it 'a little bit more scary than what it actually is'. A significant fall in pressure of 20 to 30 hectopascals over the past two days has transformed the coastal low into a severe storm but the bureau has instead described it as a 'vigorous coastal low'. The Bureau of Meteorology forecasts conditions to start easing late Thursday as the storm moves east into the Tasman Sea, but people across NSW's south coast and inland catchments are being urged to stay alert for flash flooding, falling trees and continued power outages.
The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Italy limits outdoor work as heatwave breaks records across Europe
Outdoor working has been banned during the hottest parts of the day in more than half of Italy's regions as an extreme heatwave that has smashed June temperature records in Spain and Portugal continues to grip large swathes of Europe. The savage temperatures are believed to have claimed at least three lives, including that of a small boy who is thought to have died from heatstroke while in a car in Catalonia's Tarragona province on Tuesday afternoon. In Palermo, Sicily, a 53-year-old woman died on Monday after fainting while walking along a street. She had reportedly suffered from a heart condition. A 70-year-old man was reported to have drowned at a tourist resort close to Turin as intense heat gave way to storms and flash floods. Admissions to hospital emergency units in parts of Italy have risen by 15-20% in recent days. The majority of patients are elderly people suffering from dehydration. The heatwave, which has forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people from their homes in Turkey due to wildfires, has also forced the closure of schools in parts of France – as education unions warned the classrooms were dangerously hot for children and teachers. Tourists, meanwhile, were confronted with closures of some of Europe's popular attractions. The top of the Eiffel Tower was shut as temperatures in Paris were poised to hit 38C (100.4F). In Brussels, the Atomium monument, famed for its giant stainless steel balls, closed early as temperatures inched towards 37C. In Italy, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna, two industrial hubs, announced they were stopping open-air work between 12.30pm and 4pm, joining 11 other regions – stretching from Liguria in the north-west to Calabria and Sicily in the south – that have imposed similar bans in recent days. Local authorities were heeding advice from trade unions after the death of Brahim Ait El Hajjam, a 47-year-old construction worker, who collapsed and died while working on a building site close to Bologna, the capital of Emilia-Romagna, on Monday. Two workers fell ill on Tuesday on a construction site near Vicenza in Veneto. One is reportedly in a coma. The CGIL Bologna and Fillea CGIL unions said in a statement: 'While we wait to learn the actual cause of death, it is essential, during this terrible period, to promote a culture of safety. 'The climate emergency has clearly worsened the conditions for those who work outside every day and companies must give absolute priority to the protection of workers.' The French national rail operator SNCF said train travel between France and Italy had been suspended for 'at least several days' after violent storms on Monday, AFP reported. Cogne, a town in Italy's Aosta Valley that suffered severe flooding in June last year, has been cut off by a landslide. The Spanish state meteorological agency, Aemet, said in a social media update that 'June 2025 smashed records' when it came to high temperature, with an average temperature of 23.6C, 0.8C above the previous hottest June in 2017. The monthly average was also 3.5C higher than the average over the period from 1991 to 2020, it said. The agency's comments come just days after Spain's highest ever June temperature of 46C was recorded in the Huelva province of Andalucía. In Portugal, temperatures hit 46.6C in Mora, a town in the Évora district, in recent days, making it the highest June temperature ever recorded in the country, according to the Portuguese Institute for the Sea and Atmosphere. In France, the prime minister, François Bayrou, tried to calm anger at the heatwave crisis in French schools. More than 1,896 schools across the country were fully or partially closed on Tuesday. In Paris, which was on maximum heatwave alert, parents were advised to keep their children at home on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some other towns, including Troyes and Melun, closed all their schools. Bayrou said the education ministry would open talks with mayors on how to adapt school buildings, most of which are extremely poorly insulated. As temperatures rose on Tuesday, some Paris teachers had nothing more than a water spray on their desk to repeatedly spritz children in classrooms in the hope of keeping cool. Bayrou, who is facing a vote of no confidence on Tuesday, which he is expected to survive, has cancelled his meetings to monitor the situation in real time. The hot weather front known in Germany as Bettina is expected to have nearly the entire country in its grip by Wednesday, with temperatures shooting toward the 40C mark and only the coasts and Alpine peaks spared the scorching temperatures. Industry groups warned that schools, elderly care homes and hospitals were ill-prepared for the heatwave – an urgent issue they said must be addressed as the frequency of life-threatening weather increases. Other cities across Europe are also experiencing higher than usual temperatures, including Zaragoza (39C), Rome (37C), Madrid (37C), Athens (37C), Brussels (36C), Frankfurt (36C), Tirana (35C) and London (33C). Turkey's forestry minister, İbrahim Yumaklı, said firefighters had been called out to 263 wildfires across the country in recent days. Firefighters have also been tackling wildfires in parts of France and Italy, especially on the islands of Sardinia and Sicily.
