Syndey Storm Picture: Viral Photo Captures ‘Apocalyptic’ Storm

A Sydney storm that was captured in a dramatic photo unloaded more than an inch of rain in just half an hour, flooding much of the city and causing chaos on roads and railways.

The clouds rolled in toward Australia’s largest city earlier this week, bringing violent thunderstorms and torrential rain. The giant thunderheads were described as “apocalyptic” by those who saw them move in toward Sydney.

Witnesses say that storm came upon Sydney like a “wave,” turning a day that had been mostly pleasant into a frightening situation.

“It was a typical, warm and sunny late-summer day in Sydney,” AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Mark Paquette said. “Convection flared inland and drifted toward the coast and interacted with a bit of a sea breeze and the ‘apocalyptic’ storms resulted.”

This is not the first time Sydney was met with a storm of epic proportions. In October, three wildfires burning in the mountains near Sydney threatened to create a massive firestorm.

After hundreds of homes were destroyed, authorities warned that a mega-fire could break out and told residents that giant plumes of smoke could create a health hazard.

“The fuel bed is very, very dry. We’ve had a series of high wind, high temperature, low humidity days,” said Stuart Midgely, a New South Wales Rural Fire Service incident controller. “That cause fires to run quite hard. For instance, the fire that started last Thursday ran 35 kilometers in one day.”

In the end the Sydney fire storm destroyed 208 storms and turned huge patches of forest into a wasteland.

The Sydney storm that hit this week may not be the end of the violent weather. Forecasters say there is potential for similar storms in the next few days.

The Sydney storm was also popular on the internet. A picture taken of clouds rolling toward the city was shared on Reddit, garnering tens of thousands of user “upvotes” in just a few hours.