Severe thunderstorms to impact eastern inland Australia

Australian Community Media

Heavy rainfall and flash flooding expected as large bands of moisture moving across the east of the country.

Transcript

00:00Severe thunderstorms and rain areas to impact much of eastern Australia in the coming days,

00:05bringing some issues and possible flooding as well. And we can see that over the last six hours,

00:10the band of rain and storms moving across southern Queensland, inland New South Wales,

00:15central and eastern Vic and also much of Tasmania. Now generally that's brought 10 to 20 millimetres

00:21for a lot of these inland areas. We have seen some heavier falls for the central and eastern

00:25ranges of Victoria, around 30 to 50 millimetres there, and also a few isolated falls in excess

00:30of 20 millimetres through inland parts of New South Wales with this band of rain and storms

00:34and through northern Tasmania. We can see what's driving this, lots of moisture pouring down across

00:40tropical north Australia down through eastern Australia associated with that trough and cold

00:45front. That's lifting all that warm moist air into this band of rain, cloud, showers and

00:50thunderstorms seen here by the darker greens. Now it looks a bit dry behind it but we're lucky to

00:55see a revigeration and another round of showers and thunderstorms today, with severe thunderstorms

01:00likely over a large part of eastern Australia. We can see that here with today's thunderstorm map,

01:06with severe thunderstorms possible pretty much from inland of Cairns all the way down through

01:10central Queensland, central New South Wales and into eastern Victoria. But a particular note are

01:15those in these red highlighted areas and that's where severe thunderstorms are likely with heavy

01:20rainfall and damaging winds, and that could lead to further issues there through Victoria and northeast

01:26Victoria and parts of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. And then as we move

01:31into tomorrow, that thunderstorm threat will start clearing through southeastern parts of the country,

01:36particularly Victoria and southern New South Wales, but another round of storms likely through

01:40southern Queensland and northern New South Wales, and moisture starting to return again through

01:45inland parts of Australia, so the storm risk will also move through parts of the NT, while our storms

01:50will continue across the tropical north. But let's have a look at some of those impacts with those

01:54storms. We could see flash flooding, particularly through southern Queensland and northern New South

01:59Wales with those storms, with heavy rainfall rates, and that could also lead to dangerous driving

02:03conditions if you're out and about through country parts of Victoria and northeast parts of New South

02:09Wales and southern Queensland. And some of these storms, if you're directly underneath them, could

02:13bring down trees and power lines, lead to localised power outages and also cause inundation for homes,

02:19properties and businesses for those really heavy storms. But let's look at all of that in more

02:23detail. So firstly we can see that band of rain and storms moving across inland New South Wales

02:28and Queensland today, but note into the afternoon and evening hours, we see those showers and

02:33thunderstorms redevelop through western and central parts of New South Wales, eastern Victoria, and

02:38much of inland Queensland, and these are the storms that are likely to be severe later this afternoon

02:43and this evening, causing those issues that I just mentioned. Could also see rain and storms getting

02:47to the east coast of New South Wales as well and around the Canberra area, but we do note it quickly

02:52clears as we move into tonight and to tomorrow as this high pressure system moves into southeast

02:57and parts of the Stuntree, but notice another round of showers and thunderstorms for northeast New

03:01South Wales and southern Queensland, and some of those could be severe as well. Now with all this

03:07activity we're likely to see quite widespread rainfall over the next three days, with widespread

03:1315 to 25 millimetres and quite large areas of 25 to 50 through northeast Victoria, much of inland

03:20New South Wales and southern Queensland and even up into northern Queensland as well, we could see

03:24falls up there approaching 100 millimetres. Now with all this rainfall on already saturated soils

03:31and catchments, that does mean we could see renewed flood risk for some parts of northeast Victoria

03:36and southeast New South Wales. These purple highlighted areas indicate areas that are flood

03:41watch, meaning forecast rainfall could lead to flash and riverine flood concerns there. We've also

03:46got minor flooding through parts of northeast Tasmania, northeast Victoria as well, and the

03:52number of our rivers are in minor to moderate flooding through southern Queensland and northern

03:56New South Wales, and further rainfall could exacerbate flooding on those rivers. So with all

04:01this weather around eastern Australia in the coming days, make sure you stay up to date with the latest

04:05forecasts and warnings via our website, app and social media, and if the storms get really bad,

04:10listen to all advice from emergency services.

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