Historically, September is the second driest month of the year for Wollongong. However, Australia is now in its second year of La Niña and is expected to enter its third year in 2023.

The time trial in Wollongong was dry and sunny, but the weather worsened in the coastal cities. The chance of precipitation is 100% on Friday and 80% on Saturday. This put a damper on the biggest sporting event held in Wollongong and the second World Championships to be held in Australia after the 2010 World Championships in Geelong. The current chance of precipitation for Sunday's men's road race is 10%.

The forecast for Friday and Saturday is a modest 5-15 mm of precipitation and 3-5 mm of rainfall, a far cry from the historic flooding on August 18, 1998, when Wollongong recorded 316 mm of rain in just three hours. Organizers will just have to hope that the record to be broken this weekend is sporting rather than climate-related. Of course, at least they did not anticipate the inclement weather.

"Historically, the last few months have already ...... I think it's naive to think we're going to have eight days of clear skies," Wollongong World Championships safety manager Mark Renshaw told Cycling News in the weeks before the race.

Rain was already falling on Thursday morning, giving many riders a taste of what a rain-soaked course would be like.

The 17.1 km long Wollongong urban circuit has 33 corners, and a wet track surface will likely affect the outcome of Friday and Saturday's races.

The Junior and U23 Men's races will be held on Friday at the Wollongong City Circuit only. The same applies to the junior women on Saturday. The women's elite/U23 road race on Saturday afternoon will start in Helensburgh, run on the Mount Keira Loop, and end with six laps of the city circuit.

The junior men will run 164 laps around the city, the junior women will run 132 laps, and the U23 men will run 330 laps. For the elite/U23 women, the course will be nearly 198 turns on wet and dry surfaces. This does not include the twists and turns from Helensburgh or the 34.2 km Mount Keira Loop.

The Mount Keila Loop also includes a road that was just reopened earlier this month. Many sections of Mount Keira Road were closed again after storm damage prior to the World Championships, and Harry Graham Drive was closed for several months for extensive repairs to the road. Wollongong received over 700 mm of rain in the first three months of 2022.