Destructive winds trigger power outages across Aussie state

Sydney, May 31 A powerful cold front descending on southeastern Australia has brought damaging winds and rain, which has led to thousands of power outages and a sudden drop in temperature in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW).

Winds between 90 to 100 km an hour have lashed much of eastern NSW, including its capital Sydney, since Monday.

Energy supplier, Ausgrid, has displayed 50 unplanned, primarily in Sydney's north and in NSW coastal city of Newcastle, which has affected 12,880 homes and sites, Xinhua news agency reported.

NSW State Emergency Service (SES) has reported more than 600 calls overnight for assistance since Monday, primarily due to trees falling in the strong winds.

"We've seen most of those calls been for trees, either the trees down on roofs, trees on roads, or trees on power lines...We'd like to focus on making sure people stay away from those power lines," NSW SES Deputy Commissioner, Daniel Austin told national broadcaster ABC on Tuesday morning.

Over 500 SES volunteers have been deployed across the state to assist those impacted.

The sudden bout of cold weather has been attributed by the NSW Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) to a low-pressure system moving across eastern Australia.

The system has triggered a cold snap in NSW with temperatures in Sydney plummeting to a low of eight degrees on Monday. The cold weather is expected to continue as a sign of an early start to winter.

The BoM forecast that the worst of the intense weather system will dissipate by Thursday.

Meteorologists from the BoM have forecast a wetter than average winter due to the La Nina weather system that persists off Australia's northeastern coast.