00:00A broad-reaching rain band is moving across the country, with damaging winds likely for some parts of Australia over the coming days as well.
00:08I'm going to start today by taking a look at our rainfall totals, forecast between midnight last night and midnight on Sunday.
00:14Now, fairly widespread moderate rainfall totals across much of Australia over the coming days as this rain system moves eastwards.
00:22But the area I really want to focus on is this area here in the southeast, including parts of southern South Australia,
00:28western Victoria, and inland New South Wales.
00:31These areas have seen significant rainfall deficits over the past 6, 12, even 18 months.
00:37The rain that we're expecting over the coming days is not going to do too much to dent these long-term deficits,
00:42but it is going to be good news for many of our communities through these very dry parts of Australia.
00:48However, it's not without its own hazards.
00:51While we are looking at a widespread 20 to 40 millimetres for many of our growing areas,
00:56particularly through South Australia and Western Victoria,
00:59we could see many of our roads becoming a little bit flooded or potentially muddy and impassable where they're dirt roads.
01:05This could lead to very dangerous driving conditions as those roads grow slippery with the rain and visibility reduces as well.
01:12Now, the other key impact we're expecting as this system moves across the country are the damaging winds.
01:19We've already issued severe weather warnings for damaging winds across four separate states of Australia.
01:24Queensland, the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia.
01:28Now, for most of these areas, the risk of damaging winds is mainly focused on tomorrow as this system starts to move eastwards.
01:36But the south coast of Western Australia may see some damaging wind gusts through this afternoon as well.
01:43Now, those winds as well may lead to trees and branches being brought down,
01:48potentially damaging cars or property where they fall, particularly where they're combining with that rainfall as well.
01:55We may also see some power outages over the next few days if power lines are impacted by the winds as well.
02:01So what's driving all of this wet and windy weather?
02:04The answer to that is a cold front.
02:07It crossed the west coast yesterday, bringing some fairly significant thunderstorms to the Perth area.
02:11And it's now moving across those inland parts of Western Australia, directing a broad rain band across much of WA.
02:19That rain is expected to push into parts of South Australia and southern parts of the Northern Territory through the course of today.
02:26The system is attached to a low pressure system sitting to the south of the continent.
02:31And that low is going to help push this cold front and the rain band eastwards over the next few days.
02:38We may also see some thunderstorms in some parts today, which could produce some damaging wind gusts across the interior and south of Western Australia.
02:45As we go into tomorrow, this cold front is going to pull the rain band eastwards, introducing that rain to eastern parts of South Australia, Western Victoria, New South Wales and southern parts of Queensland too.
02:59The rain will be widespread, soaking and lasting for a number of hours.
03:04Unlike the patchier showers, we're expecting to pull up behind that frontal system.
03:10The winds are also expected to really increase through the course of tomorrow.
03:14Here I'm looking at winds above the surface to get an impression of how strong the wind gusts might be as they come down with any showers and thunderstorms that develop.
03:22Now, anywhere you can see these red and pinky colours, that's the areas we really want to focus on.
03:27These are the winds which might produce that damage to trees and property.
03:32You can see that it's ahead of the front, that there's a real focus of strong winds moving eastwards as the front moves east.
03:38But we also have some areas of damaging winds behind the front as well, although less widespread.
03:43That band of strong winds shifts into the eastern states late Friday into Saturday as the front pushes eastwards.
03:50And we see those strong winds moving across the east coast through the course of Saturday before the system gradually starts to move offshore and the winds start to ease.
03:59That means these wind warnings that we're seeing at the moment, really flagging that wind risk for Friday, they may extend eastwards over the next 24 to 48 hours.
04:09That cold front is pushing the strong winds east and so our warnings will reflect this risk as well.
04:15It is essential to stay on top of all the warning updates at this time.
04:20As we go into Saturday, the cold front is going to gradually move off the east coast, taking this main rain band with it.
04:27We are likely to see an easing in that soaking widespread rain across the mainland, but we will still be left with very scattered showers.
04:35Cooler air in the wake of the system as well, with some snow possible about those southeast alpine areas.
04:40Now, Friday and Saturday are definitely looking likely to be the wettest days as this system moves across the country.
04:48It is essential to stay on top of all of our forecasts and warnings at this time, which you can do through the Bureau's website, the BOM Weather app and via our social media.
