Over 40,000 people lost power today as severe storms swept through Sydney. The storms formed due to a combination of an upper trough passing overhead with a surface Southerly change moving up the coast. With ample moisture still in the air, it didn't take long before severe storm warnings were put out by the BOM for flash flooding across Sydney, Illawarra and the Hunter. More reports and photos by clicking 'read more' below.

The last few weeks have seen a marked increased in rainfall and overall storminess across NSW. A series of surface lows and upper troughs that have dragged in a ton of moisture from the Coral Sea, as well as from the tropical monsoon over the north of Australia. Some areas of Sydney saw widespread flooding - harking back to the floody years of the late eighties and early nineties.

While we have been copping the rain, inland NSW has been copping day after day of severe storms - the above image taken yesterday by Neil evening looking south west towards Breeza and Werris Creek, at the back of the S.E.S. Headquarters in Tamworth.

Lightning Strikes on the John Hancock Building from cshimala on Vimeo.

Not an Australian storm, but an amazing little clip of a storm in Chigago. Count how many times that one building gets struck in this video...

... are back once again. In what seemed to be a 10 year absence, storms across the basin were often low in numbers and lacking punch. This year things have changed. We are back to the good old summers of the past. Having said that its amazing how short term most people's memories are. No this is not unusual it is simply our normal summer pattern returning to normal again.

Had a brief successful chase this afternoon starting at Campbelltown and nearly doing a loop down to Picton/Appin/Bulli/Waterfall/Holsworthy and then back up to Galston.

Watched the earlier cells near wollongong go nuts from near Campbelltown. The NW flanking line started to get its act together with some crisp powerful updrafts however the bases were still quite high at this point. I opted for the coastal show at the start knowing the lightning and features were much better.