Severe Weather Update: Wet And Windy For South-east 9 August

A strong cold front and rain band continues to impact south-eastern parts of the country, bringing damaging winds, possible severe thunderstorms, locally heavy rainfall and a risk of flash and riverine flooding.

My name is Sarah and I’ll be taking you through what to expect over the next couple of days. So we’ll start off by looking at the satellite imagery.

And here’s that cold front that brought the wild weather yesterday. Now feeding into a low pressure system in the bight.

And it’s combining with this cloud band, and a really deep layer of tropical moisture.

The radar at the moment shows there’s widespread areas of rain throughout eastern parts of the country, fairly light at the moment.

However, these chunkier showers and thunderstorms throughout South Australia.

The thunderstorm outlook indicates that there’s the potential for thunderstorms across a broad area of southern Australia, but just focusing in on where severe thunderstorms are possible throughout the south-east and the Fleurieu Peninsula.

That heavy rainfall that may lead to flash flooding may occur this afternoon, continuing into this evening.

So we may issue some severe thunderstorm warnings if any of those thunderstorms start to look particularly nasty.

So if you live within these areas, it’s a good idea if you stay up to date with the latest warnings. Now we also have severe weather warnings across multiple states.

But just focusing in on South Australia, damaging winds in excess of 90 km/h.

Are possible this afternoon and this evening through western parts, including parts of the York Peninsula.

However for the Flinders Ranges, the damaging winds will continue overnight tonight, easing around sunrise tomorrow.

For Victoria, damaging winds are possible this afternoon. Throughout the Macedon and Central Ranges, pushing into the eastern ranges.

And as well about the alpine districts of New South Wales. So this is for wind gusts in excess of 90, even 100 km/h.

It’s a slightly different story, however, for New South Wales, a really broad area extending right along the ranges.

With the damaging winds expected to develop in the early hours of Monday morning but will be most likely during Monday afternoon.

And this includes across the Hunter. And for the Newcastle area. So it’s unlikely that this warning will be canceled until at least Tuesday morning.

So let’s take a look at the weather system that’s driving all.

Of this severe weather, this low pressure system with the strong cold front and really gusty northerly winds ahead of it. Gusty south-westerly winds behind it.

And with the rain really starting to bank up in those northerly winds about the northern slopes of Victoria.

Now that rain is expected to increase later this evening and continue into Monday. And for that reason, we have issued a number of flood watches across catchments.

Throughout central and eastern parts of Victoria.

Spilling over into the Snowy River catchment of New South Wales, and also a new area for the Avoca River out in the west.

So anywhere, within these areas widespread minor to moderate flooding is possible this evening, continuing into tomorrow.

So as we head into tomorrow, that low pressure system and cold front will move eastwards, dragging the wet weather into eastern parts of New South Wales throughout the day, before eventually skirting out into the Tasman Sea and dragging the worst of the winds.

And the rain with it. So how much rainfall are we expecting?

This is the accumulated rainfall between now until Monday evening, with widespread 20 to 40 mm expected across the south-east.

But the highest totals will be about the ranges of South Australia, the Flinders and the Mount Lofty and then the Victorian.

And south-eastern New South Wales, where 50 to 70 mm is possible. We’ve also about the Alpine areas of Victoria.

They may see even up to 100 to 120 mm.

Community impacts with these wet and windy weather include the potential for trees and power lines to be felled, causing power outage and damage to property.

As well, there’s the potential for flash and riverine flooding in the heavy rainfall or severe storms, and then hazardous driving conditions with water or debris strewn across the road causing travel disruptions.

So if you live across south-eastern parts of the country, now’s a really good time to stay up to date with our latest warnings by the bureau website, app and social media.

And also listen to the advice from your local emergency services. Bye for now.