As shown on the rainfall plot, a burst of moderate to heavy rain impacted the New South Wales coast on Friday 22 May 2015. Unlike recent events, the rainfall was not as heavy. This was caused by an east coast low although it was not as strong as recent systems and it was fast moving.
Notwithstanding this, weather stations on the exposed coastline did in fact record strong to gale force winds from this event. No less than four weather stations recorded winds of at least 90 km/h but this was restricted to the coastline. The following is observed:-
Belambi Weather Station - A single wind gust of 91 km/h is recorded at 11 am from the SSW.
Wattamolla Weather Station - Wind gusts reached 115 km/h at 10.30 am from the south. This station also recorded a wind gust of 111 km/h at 11 am and 113 km/h at 6.16 pm, 6.17 pm and 6.23 pm.
Norah Head - Wind gusts reached 89 km/h at 1.02 pm and a peak wind gust of 93 km/h is recorded at 1.30 pm.
Nobbys Head (Newcastle) - This weather station recorded a peak wind gust of 89 km/h at 3 pm.
Moderate rainfall was observed from the South Coast to the mid north coast but the heaviest falls were relatively isolated. For the 24 hours to 9 am 22/5/2015, the heaviest falls were 61 mm at Point Perpendicular, 60 mm at Regatta Point, 55 mm at Barlow Bay and 54 mm at Fishermans Repeater. Rainfall was very light thereafter.
For the 24 hours to 9 am 23 May 2015, the heaviest falls were 59 mm at Kangy Angy (Central Coast), 57 mm at Wootton (Mid north coast), 55 mm at Hamlyn Terrace (Central Coast), 54 mm at Cabbage Tree Mountain (Mid north coast), 52 mm at Mardi Dam (Central Coast), 52 mm at Wallsend Bowling Club (Newcastle), 51 mm at Lookout Road Reservoir (Newcastle) and 50 mm at Wyee Post Office (Central Coast).
In Sydney rainfall totals ranged from 1 mm to 22 mm for the 24 hours to 9 am 22/5/2015 with 22 mm falling at Cronulla South and 20 mm falling at nearby La Peruse. For the 24 hours to 9 am 23/5/2015, rainfall ranged from 4 mm to 32 mm across the city. The heaviest fall was 32 mm at Frenchs Forest, 30 mm at Castle Cove and 29 mm at Sans Souci and Terrey Hills.
The rainfall plot for New South Wales is attached as well as the satellite photo from MODIS showing the cloud as it passed north along the coast.