It was lunch at Dee Why beach on 19 December 2021 when the weather turned. Rodney Avery watched the rain wall come in fast from the west and ducked back into the takeaway shop to wait it out. What hit was a microburst — a sudden column of wind and rain dropping out of a storm — and the worst of it lasted about ten minutes. When it passed, the beachfront park told the story. Pine branches were strewn about, including the tops of a couple of trunks. Two branches landed on cars. Powerlines were down, and part of a metal roof finished up on the road, with a piece of it draped over the roof of another building. Heading inland a short way, only a few branches were down, so the beachfront seems to have copped the worst of it. A microburst does not give you the warning that a big storm does. One minute you are finishing lunch, the next the wind has turned the park into a mess.
