Massive power outage in Sydney leaves 13,000 in the dark with traffic lights also down amid torrential rain

More than 13,300 homes and businesses are without power in Sydney’s west as wild weather batters the city.

Thousands of Ausgrid customers were left without electricity on Friday evening due to heavy rain.

Residents reported that street lights and even traffic lights in the area went out.

Suburbs including Newton and Alexandria have been affected.

A usually busy King Street in Newtown was plunged into darkness on Friday evening

“The traffic lights, street lights and shop lights are all out,” a resident of the west of King Street, Newtown, told Daily Mail Australia.

“People were screaming and running out of the stores.”

It comes after a week of wet weather, with most of the country expecting even more miserable conditions.

Sydney could receive as much as 45mm of rain on Saturday and up to 20mm on Sunday.

The reason for the wet weather is a high-pressure system centered just south of the country that is drawing moisture from the atmosphere, which will turn to rain in the coming days as it encounters a pool of cold, upper-level air.

Southeast Australia will see rain this weekend, as shown in this cumulative rainfall map for the seven days to Tuesday

NSW and Victoria are set for a dip, while southern WA, eastern SA and southern Queensland will also see significant declines.

Sarah Scully from the Bureau of Meteorology said the upper level trough will combine with a coastal trough over NSW on Saturday and rainfall will increase.

“Moderate to heavy rainfall is expected across the southern half of NSW,” Ms Scully said.

‘We expect to issue a severe weather warning as grounds in eastern parts of NSW are very wet as a result of recent rainfall.

‘In inland NSW, rainfall totals look set to exceed 50mm this weekend, with up to 100mm in some places.’

The Bureau has also issued a hazardous surf warning for the Macquarie, Hunter Coast, Sydney Coast and Illawarra Coast for Saturday.