As Sydneysiders woke to thunder and torrential rain on Wednesday morning, and it did not take long for snaps of the storm to start dominating social media.
The NSW State Emergency Service (SES) made more than a dozen rescues as parts of the Harbour City were swamped by flash flooding.
Among the worst-affected areas was Mosman, on the lower north shore, where more than 111 millimetres of rain was dumped before 8.30am.
These are some of the most captivating pictures.
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) spokesman Rob Taggart described the rainfall as "phenomenal".
"91mm fell in 90 minutes, that's basically the equivalent of a one-in-100-year event," he said.
A spokesman for Ausgrid, Australia's biggest electricity company, said the storm had at one stage left more than 8,000 homes without power around Sydney and the Central Coast.
Roads were underwater, two of the airport's three runways were closed and public transport services were affected as torrential rain battered the city.
The SES had to rescue stranded motorists as flash flooding left its mark.
Two police officers were injured while helping motorists on a flooded road in North Ryde.
The SES also received more than 1,500 calls for help.
A Sydney Airport spokesperson said more than 130 flights had been delayed or cancelled.
The wild weather comes less than a week after a dust storm left passengers stranded at the nation's busiest airport.
