Sydney , (AFP) - Sydney, Australia's most populous city, Thursday recorded the most annual amount of rain in 70 years, following a year of devastating floods on the country's east coast.

By afternoon, Sydney recorded its highest annual rainfall total of 2,216 mm, 86 days before the end of the year.

Sydney recorded the previous record for annual rainfall in 1950, when it reached 2,194 mm of precipitation.

This was the highest number recorded since annual rainfall data began being collected in Sydney in 1858.

With the La Niña weather phenomenon expected to bring above-average rainfall, the level at the end of the year is likely to be much higher.

The entire state of New South Wales, including Cindy, is bracing for heavy rain again this weekend.
The state's emergency services minister, Steve Cook, said Thursday that more rain could have a severe impact.

"We know that our watersheds are saturated, our dams are full, and our rivers are already high.

Therefore, any additional rains that fall, regardless of how light they are, are likely to exacerbate flooding conditions."

"Any additional rainfall could cause flash floods," she added.

The annual figures were released by a weather station in Sydney's central business district.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology said Thursday that flood warnings were in effect for large sections of eastern Australia, including parts of Queensland, New South Wales and northern Victoria.

The east coast flood disaster in March, triggered by severe storm surges that left parts of Queensland and New South Wales in ruins, killed more than 20 people.

Tens of thousands of Sydneysiders received evacuation orders in July when neighborhoods on the city's outskirts were again inundated by floods.

Australia is suffering severely from climate change, with increasing droughts, deadly bushfires, coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef and floods.

The east coast of Australia has been repeatedly hit by torrential rains in the past two years under the La Niña phenomenon.

A third rare case of the "La Nina" phenomenon was recently announced, which led to more rain and warnings of flooding next summer.

Higher temperatures mean that the atmosphere retains more moisture, which leads to more precipitation.

The Insurance Council of Australia previously estimated that disaster claims filed in 2022 were worth more than A$5 billion ($3.2 billion).

Catastrophic bushfires ravaged large parts of New South Wales in the 'black summer' of 2019 and 2020, burning about 5.5 million hectares of land, about 7% of the state's total.