KEY POINTS:
A storm sweeping over the Tasman Sea means trouble for New Zealand over the next few days.
The violent weather off the coast south of Sydney is bringing destructive winds, heavy rains, damaging surf and snow to large parts of NSW.
Sydney has escaped a battering from predicted
hurricane force winds with a huge storm in the Tasman Sea easing and moving slowly away from coast, the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) says.
Senior forecaster Peter Zmijewski says winds up to 55km/h along the NSW coastline from southern Sydney to the south coast are expected to ease and the storm's threat will have passed by midday (AEST).
"We are expecting these winds to gradually ease later this morning," he said today.
Forecasts yesterday predicted storm winds of up to 125km/h would hit Sydney, the south coast, Central Coast, and the Hunter region today.
Mr Zmijewski said the centre of the deep low pressure weather system was currently about 250km east of Wollongong, and moving slowly further east.
Winds at the cell's centre had been downgraded from hurricane force to storm force, he said.
State Emergency Service spokesman Catherine Moyle said there had been 80 calls for help across the state, most of them from Sydney, since 10pm (AEST) yesterday.
"That's about what we would expect from an average wet and windy night in Sydney," she said.
The Radio Network's weather commentator Philip Duncan said the storm would move onto much of New Zealand today and arrive in two parts.
It will bring thunderstorms in northern regions tonight and strong north-easterlies.
There will be a bit of a breather on Thursday although further thunderstorms may be triggered as the large centre of the system moves across the country.
On Friday, the second part will strike with severe south westerly winds bringing snow to the far South Island and gales to parts of the east.
The weather here will ease on Sunday.
Today, the deep low pressure system well east of the Illawarra coast is expected to move southeast later this morning, with the edge of the cell effecting the state's coast.
The worst conditions, with hurricane force winds, are still well out to sea.
Winds are expected to average over 65km/h, with peak wind gusts in the severe weather warning area exceeding 90km/h this morning.
Flooding has cut power to about 1400 homes and businesses in Mosman, on Sydney's lower North Shore, an Energy Australia spokeswoman says.
There are also several clusters of about 20 homes each without power in the city's east after fallen trees damaged power lines.
In the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, about 1000 homes are still without power. Electricity was restored to another 1000 homes in the area overnight.
Damaging surf conditions, with waves exceeding five metres in the surf zone, are likely to worsen over the next couple of days, producing significant beach erosion.
Since 9am yesterday, up to 40mm of rain has fallen across Sydney, with average falls of 30mm along the Illawarra coast. Ulladulla received the most rain with 46.8mm.
Snowfalls overnight around Oberon and Bathurst in central western NSW and in the Blue Mountains townships west of Sydney are expected to melt away through the morning.
The icy weather forced the temporary closure of sections of two major roads to Sydney's west, The Bells Line of Road and the Great Western Highway.
- AAP, NEWSTALK ZB, NZHERALD STAFF
