Rain Radar
Sydney Rain Radar Live
A live look at rain moving across Sydney and the surrounding coast. Zoom, pan and watch the last hour of radar frames loop in real time.
How to read the Sydney rain radar
The colours on the radar show rainfall intensity, not accumulation. Light blue and green are drizzle to light rain. Yellow and orange are moderate to heavy showers. Red and magenta point to intense downpours, often with thunderstorms. Watch how the cells move across the loop: most Sydney weather systems track from the west or south west, so a band appearing over the Blue Mountains is usually on its way to the coast within an hour.
For a summer storm, look for small, bright cells that build quickly and drift with the upper wind. For a winter rain event, the pattern is usually a broad, slower band moving in from the Tasman or south west. If the radar looks patchy but persistent along the coast, that is the classic east coast trough setting up over Sydney.