Storm lashes Sydney, thousands without power

SYDNEY: Thousands of Sydney homes were without power Saturday after severe storms hit Australia’s largest city, causing transport hold-

delaying a national football match.

Heavy rains and lightning storms lashed parts of Sydney late Friday, with close to 60 millimeters (nearly two and a half inches) of rain falling in some areas.

In Sydney’s west, which experienced some

- limeters fall in a short downpour lasting just 30 minutes.

“It was a slow-moving storm with that warm humid air moving along the coast... that allowed for that increase of moisture,” Byron Doyle from the New South Wales Bureau of meteorology told AFP. circulated on social media.

Energy companies reported that more than 40,000 customers were affected by power outages at the peak of the storm overnight, with more than 5,000 still without power early Saturday.

Emergency services fielded over 1,000

rescues in the Sydney area.

water,” a New South Wales state emergency services spokesperson told AFP.

Flights were delayed at Sydney’s airport, while the storm caused havoc on some of the city’s train lines.

The start of a national Australian rules football women’s match was delayed twice, pushed back 45 minutes as heavy rain and lightning pummelled the oval.

Several light towers then went out mid-match during the live television broadcast, temporarily stopping the game during a reported blackout. The Sydney storm comes as recovery efforts

- eastern state of Queensland, which over the past week has seen record-breaking rainfall, forcing hundreds of evacuations and thousands of requests for help.

Extreme heatwaves during the southern hemisphere summer have also led to temperature records being broken in some towns.

Eastern inland areas have been experienc-

country’s southern

High temperatures are not unusual in the Australian summer, but climate change has pushed up land and sea temperatures and led to

scientists say.

states have been recently