SES issues warning to Central West residents ahead of storm season

While this summer's weather forecast is set to bring dry and hot conditions, the threat of increased storm activity remains.

State Emergency Service (SES) Western Zone Commander, Chief Superintendent Brigid Rice, said residents should make sure their gutters are cleared and any loose items are secured.

"Thunderstorms bring wind and sometimes heavy downpours as well," she said.

"It's amazing what will actually fly through the air during storm season, when they do come through.

"Everyone should clean out their gutters and tie down loose items."

She also stressed the importance of being mindful of trees.

"Make sure that trees across your houses are trimmed and never, ever park cars under trees because they're the first thing to come down in a storm," Ms Rice said.

And while the SES defines the storm season as October and March, it doesn't always follow the rules.

"Storms particularly across the Central West are pretty common through the year and they will intensify," she said.

"Storm season is not a hard and fast rule. Mother Nature doesn't wait for October 1 to send these storms, so we will start seeing that increase from now."

Between October, 2022 and March, 2023, NSW SES responded to more than 14,000 storm-related incidents.

These incidents were not related to the widespread campaign flooding that took place across the state.

Of these incidents, 544 occurred in the Port Macquarie-Hastings area, 544 in Ku-ring-gai, 469 in Hornsby, 377 in Sutherland, 373 in Dubbo and 650 in the Central Coast (Gosford and Wyong).

Dubbo received so many call outs because of two significant storms in the region last year.

"There were more rainstorms in Dubbo," Ms Rice said.

"They were associated with the higher rate of rainfall that we saw across the entire west.

"A lot of the calls were for flash flooding and roofs being inundated.

"The storm jobs that we've tended to get in the Central West, more towards Orange and Bathurst, have been more for wind and thunderstorms."

Last year, major flooding events wrecked havoc in Eugowra, Molong and Forbes.

Eugowra was one of the worst hit towns, with severe flooding resulting in damage to 90 per cent of the town's building and one person was confirmed to have died.

These major flooding events came after months of drenching rain across the region.

With a hot, dry conditions forecast in the coming months, the SES is not expecting a similar event later this year.

"That particular flooding in the end of last year was really the culmination of months and months and months of saturation of our catchment," Ms Rise said.

"It was flash flooding on a mass scale.

"We wouldn't certainly be looking at something like that this season."

Ms Rice strongly encouraged people to volunteer with the SES.

"There's lots of ways that you can get involved and the community is always in need," she said.

"We always get a turnover of volunteers, so if you've ever been interested in volunteering for the SES, I strongly encourage people to sign up," Ms Rise said.

For more information on our to get involved with the SES, visit its website.

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