Severe weather update: Risk of severe storms for Sydney and Brisbane

Residents of New South Wales, including Sydney, extending all the way up into inland parts of southern Queensland, are recommended to be aware and to stay up to date, with the potential for severe thunderstorms to develop this afternoon, continuing into this evening.

My name is Sarah, and I’ll be taking you through what to expect today, but also what to expect over the coming days, where we’re expecting very dangerous thunderstorms to develop across eastern Australia.

So we’ve already seen a few severe thunderstorms develop with heavy rainfall, including well in excess of 100 mm across south-eastern parts of Queensland, particularly through the eastern parts of the Darling Downs and the Toowoomba area, which saw some flash flooding and quick responses from the river systems there. We’ve also seen in excess of 100 mm in the last 24 hours through the Central Highlands.

Now, storms are forecast today pretty much right across Queensland and much of New South Wales as well. But I’m just going to be focusing on this yellow area here, where severe thunderstorms are possible.

So these storms may bring heavy rainfall that could lead to flash flooding, damaging winds or large hail with a diameter greater than 2 cm, developing this afternoon and this evening.

Now, Brisbane does have a chance of a storm today, but it’s less likely to be severe. But the places that could be affected include Wollongong, Sydney, Port Macquarie, Tamworth, Moree, Warwick, Roma and Charleville.

Now, just focusing on the Sydney area, the most likely time for Sydney to have a severe thunderstorm will be on the leading edge of a gusty southerly change that’s expected to reach the area later tonight.

In fact, it’s that gusty southerly change that’s going to be a significant trigger for an even bigger storm day tomorrow, where we have an area of red, with severe thunderstorms likely through inland parts of Port Macquarie and Coffs Harbour as well, where high-end supercell thunderstorms may occur.

So within this area, you could see giant-sized hail, with a diameter greater than 5 cm, or destructive wind gusts in excess of 120 km/h.

Now, also noticing the yellow area where severe thunderstorms are possible through the ranges to the east of Sydney and extending all the way up the east coast, including Brisbane and Gympie, and extending into the Central Ranges of Queensland once again, with damaging winds, large hail and heavy rainfall all possible.

And as we move into Monday, it’s south-east Queensland’s turn for the potential high-end supercell thunderstorm development.

So very similar to what we saw in the Logan area midweek, and also extending into north-eastern parts of New South Wales as well.

So community impacts with severe thunderstorms include the potential for storms over the weekend for both capital cities, Sydney and Brisbane.

For Sydney, that being most likely later this evening. But for Brisbane, on Sunday and even continuing into Monday.

And there’s the potential for damage to property, with wind damage to trees, trees being blown across roads, as well as power lines coming down and causing power outages.

And then, of course, flash and riverine flooding can bring water across roads. So if the roads are flooded, please don’t risk your life trying to cross them.

Now, I’m just taking you to have a look at the weather features from Monday, jumping straight to Monday.

So here we can see it’s still expected to be a very wet day across the northern half of the New South Wales coast and south-east Queensland, with that severe thunderstorm outbreak.

But it’s this low pressure system developing off the north coast of New South Wales that we’ll be keeping a really close eye on.

Now, we’ve got the clockwise winds around the low, and there’s the potential for a lot of moisture-laden air to be pushed up onto the coast.

And also those windward slopes, with some moderate to heavy rainfall potentially starting to fall. So we are keeping a very close eye on that.

So if you live across eastern parts of Australia, now’s a really good time to stay up to date with all of our warnings via the bureau website, app and social media.

And as always, listen to the advice from your local emergency services. Bye for now.