5.30pm: The NSW SES is working through 259 wild wind-related jobs in the Illawarra and South Coast, 133 of which are yet to be completed.
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“A lot of those have been concentrated in the Illawarra area, between Kiama and Wollongong,” SES public information officer Joshua McLaren said.
More than 150 calls for assistance have been received from the Wollongong area alone on Wednesday, Mr McLaren said.
“Crews will be working into the night,” he said.
“We’ve got crews from Kiama helping out with the clean-up efforts and some units from Shellharbour will be coming up as well to help out Wollongong.”
5.25pm: The Illawarra Highway at Burrawang has reopened after it was shut by a fallen tree.
5.15pm: Endeavour Energy crews are continuing work to repair damage to the electricity network.
More than 18,400 homes and businesses have had their power supply interrupted at some stage throughout Wednesday, due mainly to branches and trees across power lines.
Endeavour Energy has been able to restore power to over 15,000 of these customers to date.
However, 3100 customers in the Illawarra and Southern Highlands remain without power.
- Albion Park, Dapto and Tullimbar – 2100 customers affected.
- Southern Highlands – work is continuing to restore power to 1000 customers in areas such as Thirlmere, Brownsville and Tahmoor.
4.40pm: The Bureau of Meteorology has now cancelled its severe weather warning for the Illawarra and South Coast.
Westerly winds averaging 35 to 55 km/h are expected to decrease to 25 to 30 km/h in the late evening.
4.30pm: The SES has been kept busy by Wednesday’s wild weather.
3.50pm: The Illawarra Highway at Burrawang remains closed in both directions, due to a fallen tree at Burrawang Station Road.
Diversions are in place via Burrawang Station Road, Hoddle Street and Church Street.
The NSW Transport Management Centre says traffic in the area is moderate and motorists should allow extra travel time.
3.30pm: A severe weather warning for damaging winds remains current for the Illawarra and South Coast.
1.55pm: A fallen tree on the M1 Princes Motorway near Picton Road has been cleared.
Power has also been restored to West Wollongong and traffic lights in the area are no longer blacked out.
1.40pm: Southbound traffic affected by a fallen tree on the M1 Princes Motorway near Picton Road.
It is the second tree down on the same stretch of road. Earlier on Wednesday, a man was killed when a tree fell on his ute in a freak accident.
1.35pm: A fallen tree is affecting traffic in both directions on Sheepwash Road near the Illawarra Highway at Burrawang.
Motorists are also reminded Macquarie Pass is closed for maintenance work until 5pm on Friday.
1.20pm: More than 5000 Endeavour Energy customers in the Illawarra and South Coast are without power as wild winds continue to wreak havoc on the regions’ electricity network.
An Endeavour spokeswoman said 5300 customers in the southern region – spanning the coast from Wollongong to Batemans Bay – were currently affected.
The figure includes 1300 customers at Dapto, 1200 at Albion Park, 500 in West Wollongong and about 200 in Tullimbar.
Homes and businesses in Brownsville, Towradgi and Mount Ousley are also affected.
The outage number had been as high as 6500 customer, with residents in the Sanctuary Point area recently coming back on line.
1.10pm: If you’re in the Wollondilly area, the Bargo Waste Management Centre has been closed due to extreme winds.
It will reopen at 8.30am on Thursday.
1.05pm: We’re hearing reports of snow and sleet in the Southern Highlands.
Forecaster Olenka Duma said the Bureau of Meteorology couldn’t confirm if snow had fallen in the highlands.
Do you live in the Southern Highlands? What’s the weather doing at your place?
12.55pm: Wollongong City Council has closed its Whytes Gully Waste facility to all small vehicles and any vehicle requiring manual unloading.
12.30pm: The wild weather battering the Illawarra has turned deadly, after a man was killed when a tree fell on his ute in a freak accident on the M1 Princes Motorway.
12.20pm: The wind is increasing across the Illawarra, with gusts approaching 100km/h.
A 98km/h westerly wind gust was recorded at Albion Park at 11.59am, while Bellambi Point copped a 96km/h gust two minutes earlier.
12.15pm: A fallen tree is affecting northbound traffic on the M1 Princes Motorway, approaching Mount Ousley Road, at Keiraville.
12.10pm: A number of traffic lights in the West Wollongong are blacked out after strong winds cut power in the area.
The NSW Transport Management Centre says lights on the Princes Highway at West Wollongong are out, along with four other sets in the area.
Traffic lights are flashing yellow on Squires Way, near the University of Wollongong’s Innovation Campus, at Fairy Meadow.
12.05pm: A fierce blast of winter is battering the Illawarra, bringing down trees, cutting power and prompting more than 100 calls for SES help.
A severe weather warning is current for most of southern NSW.
The Bureau of Meteorology is forecasting damaging winds for an arc of the state stretching from the border with Victoria all the way to Newcastle. (See map below.)
Blizzards are possible in areas above 1700 metres in the Snowy Mountains district, the bureau warned, while the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service advised people to consider postponing back-country travel until conditions improve.
Canberra residents woke to snow flurries on Wednesday, while Thredbo said "an incredible" 70cm of fresh snow had fallen at the resort since Tuesday afternoon, and Perisher 35cm in the past day.
Gusts at Perisher Valley reached 109km/h just after 7.30pm on Tuesday, but could reach as high as 120 km/h on Wednesday in areas of the southern ranges above 1800 metres.
For Wollongong, the maximum temperature will plummet from a mild 19 degrees on Tuesday to an expected top of 14 degrees on Wednesday as the powerful cold front sweeps across NSW.
"With the progress of this front, we'll have a pretty decent wind chill," David Grant, a duty forecaster with the bureau, said. "It will feel like it's single digits."
At 7.30am on Wednesday it was 9.2 degrees at Bellambi Point, but taking into account the wind chill, it felt like -1.3 degrees, the bureau said.
Inland at the same time, it was a chilly 8.6 degrees at Albion Park but felt more like -1.7.
Winds picked up just before 10am, when gusts of 91km/h and 93km/h were recorded at Bellambi and Albion Park respectively.
The strong winds brought with them an icy feel – the apparent temperature at Albion Park at 10am was -3.0 degrees.
The westerly winds should ease by the afternoon but will still be blowing, with sustained speeds of 20-30 km/h by the evening.
"Even though it's a westerly wind, [the chill] can catch people by surprise," Jacob Cronje, a senior meteorologist with Weatherzone, said. 'It's going to be cold all day."
Earlier on Wednesday, the SES said it had received more than 100 requests for help across the Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Highlands.
The chill won't loosen its grip on Illawarra - and most of the rest of the state - until the weekend.
Behind the front, a big high-pressure system will settle in, leading to clearer skies but frosty nights.
Sydney had an overnight minimum of 14.8 degrees on Tuesday, nearly 7 degrees above average.
Mild overnight conditions brought a low of 10 degrees on Wednesday, but a sharply colder 6 degrees on both Thursday and Friday morning is expected, the bureau said.
For inland regions, such as Richmond, the mercury will dive to 1 degree on Thursday and to zero on Friday.
Snow is expected to fall to 300 metres on the southern ranges on Tuesday and to 600 metres on the central ranges on Wednesday, Mr Grant said. West-facing slopes will get the deepest falls.
Waking up to a dusting of #snow here in #Canberra pic.twitter.com/6g98YJbU8p— Jodie Bradby (@Beidoj) July 12, 2016
Orange, in the central west, has a chance of getting some snow on Wednesday, Mr Cronje said.
One feature of the cold front is not just its strength but the fact "it's penetrating quite far north", Mr Cronje said.
The clouds over Australia are also attracting interest among meteorologists for their reach - stretching from Sri Lanka to across the Tasman.
Not your everyday satellite image: band of cloud (moisture) streaks 10,000 km from Sri Lanka to NZ --> #bigwet. pic.twitter.com/ZWOJuWBdrz— Niwa Weather (@NiwaWeather) July 12, 2016
Gale warnings are also in force on Tuesday for coastal waters from Eden to the Hunter, with gusts reaching 95 km/h on Montague Island on Tuesday.
Similar conditions are expected on Wednesday, the bureau said.
- with Peter Hannam and Megan Levy, SMH