A clean-up is underway after wind gusts of more than 100 kilometres per hour and hailstones 6 centimetres wide hit parts of New South Wales on Friday night.
The State Emergency Service responded to more than 100 calls for help in Sydney and parts of the south coast.
Most of the call-outs were for roof damage and fallen trees.
"The most impacted area was the Sydney metro area with a total of 41 incidents, followed by the south-eastern zone with 35," SES spokesperson Stacey Phillips said.
"There have been leaking roofs, trees down, and we've had a few down across roads, and a lot in private property."
24,000 lightning strikes per hour
Illawarra Stormchasers reported that at one point the storm front stretched for 600 kilometres and created 24,000 lightning strikes per hour, translating to one strike every 15th of a second.
Power was cut to 3,000 homes for an hour in the Wollongong suburb of Warilla after a lightning strike.
Storm activity stretched as far north as Grafton, where about 60 millimetres of rain was recorded in one hour at the airport, while strong wind gusts hit Cabramurra, south of the ACT, and hailstones 6cm wide fell at Yass.
Hailstones caused significant damage to car windscreens for some residents in the Shoalhaven region.
Resident Ethan Vanbaardwyk's rear windscreen was destroyed when he was caught in the storm near Sussex Inlet.
He said he and his friend had to block their ears as his car was pummelled by hailstones.
"It smashed the back window, there was rain coming in and we got all sprayed by glass," he said.
"Massive hailstones were coming into the car."
Cooler weather forecast
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has forecast cooler weather for the next three days with temperatures below average.
"Windier conditions will develop and we'll see a few showers around the southern half of the ranges in the western slopes," BOM spokesperson Gabrielle Woodhouse said
"We could see a little bit of snow fall around the alpine peaks from Saturday night, but more so during Sunday.
"For the most part it is actually going to be quite cool and quite windy."
