Loading

Sydney avoided any rainfall on Friday but is likely to collect 2-8 millimetres on Saturday and 6-20 millimetres on Sunday, the first falls for May since a meagre 0.2 millimetre on the first of the month.

"Unfortunately, there's no significant rain I can see for eastern NSW [on the near-term forecasts]," Ms Miskelly said.

Precipitation was prominent elsewhere, though, with the Central Tablelands, especially Oberon and Blayney, covered in a light blanket of snow overnight.

Further falls were possible on Friday and into the weekend, although the lack of moisture in the cool air meant any dusting was likely to be lighter.

Record soaking

Hobart collected some of the most extreme conditions from the so-called cut-off low, that had spun north from the transpolar winds circling Antarctica.

The Tasmanian capital collected 129.2 millimetres of rain, which roughly tripled the previous May day record of 46.7 millimetres. It was the most in the city for any day since April 23, 1960, the bureau said.

The torrential downpour, which flooded parts of the city and even shifted vehicles, meant Hobart has already had its fourth wettest May in more than a century of records.

Totals of 236.2 millimetres at kunanyi (Mount Wellington) and 226.4 at Leslie Vale were the second- and third-highest May daily totals on record for Tasmania, Blair Trewin, the bureau's senior climatologist, said.

Temperatures were on the cool side with record lows for this early in the season for several shorter-term sites in western Victoria and south-east South Australia.

"At longer-term sites, Nhill [in western Victoria] had its lowest maximum so early in the season since 1960, and Melbourne since 1970," Dr Trewin said.

Big surf

The big low will stir potentially damaging waves in excess of five metres on Saturday morning along stretches of the NSW coast south of Kiama.

"Localised damage and coastal erosion is possible in these areas," the bureau said.

For Sydney's coastal region, waves reaching three to four metres are possible on Saturday, less severe than expected a few days ago.

Wave conditions and forecasts are available on the Manly Hydraulics Laboratory website.

While the warm spell that has given Sydney record temperatures for the first 4½ months may have been snapped, daytime temperatures will likely spring back to above-average levels from Saturday onwards.