Severe thunderstorm outbreak set to sweep across large parts of NSW on Friday with Sydney in the firing line

One of the biggest storm outbreaks of the season so far has been forecast to smash large parts of New South Wales on Friday.

The Bureau of Metrology warned of the high chance for severe and widespread thunderstorms across the state, bringing winds, rain and even hail.

“It’s certainly shaping up to be quite a stormy afternoon and evening for eastern and northeast NSW,” senior meteorologist Angus Hines said.

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“We absolutely see the potential there for thunderstorms to begin to develop, and certainly it looks likely that some of the storms will continue to build and strengthen and intensify (into) severe thunderstorms.”

Sydney is forecast to be a hot and sunny Friday morning, reaching highs of 32C in the city, and up to 34C in parts of the western suburbs.

The storms are expected to break-out in the afternoon through the entire Sydney Metro area, up through the Central Coast, the Hunter Valley region, Newcastle and into the Mid North Coast and as far north as Port Macquarie.

They are also expected to push inland up to the Central Tablelands, the Blue Mountains west of Sydney and across to the western slopes and plains.

“Sydney is right in the heart of the severe thunderstorm risk for tomorrow,” Hines said.

“So we could see some storms, and potentially some severe storms, crossing the city tomorrow.”

The storms are expected to reach Sydney about 4pm on Friday, breaking the warmer weather and dropping temperatures by up to 10C in an hour, with Saturday expected to bring a cooler 23C.

“If and when those storms develop, It seems that the most likely scenario is they would be severe thunderstorms because of the large hail and the damaging winds that they’re bringing,” Hines said.

“Sometimes severe thunderstorms can also bring really heavy rain, that looks a little bit less of a risk tomorrow, but the big hailstones and the very strong winds absolutely look to be quite a significant risk.”

The outbreak is looking to be one of the biggest storm outbreaks of the 2025/26 storm season in NSW.

“This is probably up there as the most prominent of the season so far,” Hines said.

NSW residents are urged to keep up-to-date with severe weather warnings in their areas.