When this kind of storm is brewing, older minds turn back to the Sygna storm on May 26, 1974.

"Stocky'll [Stockton] be gone," weathered old blokes used to say.

Of course, now it pretty much is gone.

The hulk of the Sygna ship ended up being stranded on Stockton Beach for 42 years. Some thought the Pasha Bulker would meet the same fate in the storm of June 8, 2007.

Somehow, after 25 days marooned at Nobbys, tug boats managed to tow the Pasha to safety. It took three attempts over five nights.

Bureau of Meteorology research shows that the Hunter is a historical hotspot for hurricane-style storms.

The region has attracted some of the strongest winds in the state's recorded history.

The Sygna storm had wind gusts up to 165km/h, the so-called "superstorm" of April 21, 2015 recorded gusts of up to 135km/h and the Pasha storm up to 124km/h.

A bureau publication called Stormy Weather: A century of storms, fire, flood and drought in NSW said ''life's certainties include death, taxes and wild weather''.

The report said a ''massive tornado'' hit the Bulahdelah State Forest on New Year's Day in 1970.

This tornado was ''probably more intense than any other documented in Australian literature at that time''.

It carved a path of damage ''22 kilometres long and up to 1.6 kilometres wide''.

''Over one million marketable trees were damaged or destroyed by the tornado and cricket ball-sized hail,'' it said.

The report said the Sygna storm was equivalent to a ''category three severe tropical cyclone''.

As for the 2015 superstorm, it was ranked equal to a category two cyclone. It was the biggest storm in the history of the SES, which was formed after massive floods hit NSW, including Maitland, in 1955.

Another report, Severe storms on the east coast of Australia 1770-2008, said category two and three cyclones were considered hurricanes on the Beaufort wind scale.

The Beaufort scale ranks storms with wind gusts above 118km/h as hurricanes.

However, hurricanes and cyclones usually describe severe storms in tropical weather.

Wind gusts of up to 86 kilometres an hour are forecast off Nobbys on Tuesday night.

On the Beaufort scale of zero [calm] to 12 [hurricane], that would be a 9 [severe gale].

What is the Queen's favourite kind of precipitation? Reign.

What is a king's favorite kind of precipitation? Hail.

What did the lightning bolt say to the other lightning bolt? You're shocking.

How do hurricanes see? With the eye of the storm.

Where do snowmen keep their money? In a snow bank.

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