Heavy rain was greeted by spontaneous cheers as it fell on Sydney, and other parts of New South Wales, on Monday, January 6, with thunderstorm warnings issued for parts of the state by the Bureau of Meteorology. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that two people were struck by lightning in northern Sydney in what authorities described as “extraordinary circumstances.” Though the rain brought relief to some bushfire-hit zones, authorities said it could pose a challenge to the fighting of fires in some areas. “It can hamper efforts to put in back-burning, those tactical firefighting operations that we use at times to strengthen containment lines,” Greg Allen, spokesman for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service, told the ABC. This video, shared on Twitter, shows rainfall falling in central Sydney. Credit: Alp Hacioglu via Storyful
