SEVERE thunderstorms rumbled across NSW on Tuesday night, damaging properties and cutting power in some regions.
After a day of isolated thunderstorms activity on Tuesday, a more organised line of storms developed along a low pressure trough on Tuesday night.
The line of severe thunderstorms grew as it moved over NSW from west to east, prompting warnings across a large swathe of the state.
Large to giant hail was reported around Mittagong and Wollongong as the storms moved over the Southern Highlands and Illawarra at around 8pm.
By 9pm, Nowra had received 50mm of rain in one hour and clocked a wind gust of 91km/h.
As the storms moved further north and east, frequent lightning strikes lit up the night sky and some of the storms became more intense.
There were roughly 62,700 lightning strikes detected within a 100km radius of Sydney between 9pm and midnight.
These powerful storms caused wind gusts over 100km/h at North Head, Sydney Harbour and Richmond Airport between 10pm and 11pm, bringing down trees and cutting power in some areas.
For the state as a whole, more than 800,000 strikes were detected between Tuesday morning and Wednesday morning.
There were reports of major property damage from destructive winds near Gilgandra shortly before midnight on Tuesday night, while nearby Coonabarabran received 59mm of rain during the two hours to 2am on Wednesday.
By 7am on Wednesday, the most intense thunderstorms had moved offshore and were heading out into the Tasman Sea.
More settled weather will return to NSW from Thursday, although storms could redevelop in some areas this weekend.
At this stage, these storms won't be as severe as those from earlier in the week.
