Weather News

South reeling as severe weather spreads east

Ben Domensino, Friday January 20, 2017 - 11:02 AEDT

Severe weather will spread over parts of eastern Australia today after a wild night in the nation's south.

Thunderstorms brought heavy rain and damaging winds to South Australia last night. Wind gusts reached 90-110km/h across multiple districts between 4pm and 9pm, while 30-50mm of rain soaked the state's Mid North, Mount Lofty Ranges and parts of Adelaide. There were around 30,000 lightning strikes detected within a 200km radius of Adelaide between 4pm and 4am.

Adelaide Airport registered a wind gust of 111km/h at 10:30pm, while gusts above 100km/h were also recorded at Moonta, Minlaton and Wudinna. One of the heaviest falls in the state was 61mm at Leigh Creek, which is three month's worth of rain for this time of year and the heaviest rain in four years. Adelaide received 21mm to 9am today, which is their entire monthly average for January.

Dry weather has returned to southern parts of South Australia this morning, although storms will continue in the north today. A severe storm warning was issued shortly before 10am for heavy rain and damaging winds in northern parts of the Pastoral Districts.

After ravaging South Australia, the band of rain and storms swept across Victoria last night, entering the west from 10pm and reaching Melbourne around 2am. While wind gusts above 100km/h were recorded in the Alps, the main feature in most areas was rain.

Widespread rainfall totals of 20-30mm were recorded through the Victoria's South West, central and northeastern districts. As of 9am, the heaviest in the state was 50mm at Mount Hotham, while Coldstream (24mm) and Mangalore (23mm) both had their heaviest rain in a year. Melbourne collected 23mm, which is the city's heaviest rain in six months.

Dry weather has returned to western and central parts of Victoria this morning and rain will clear eastern districts this afternoon. A cooler and drier flow of fresh to strong southwesterly winds will affect the state today.

In Tasmania, rain continues to affect the whole state this morning after a sodden night. Every rain gauge on the island recorded rainfall during the last 12 hours, although the heaviest falls were in the northeast. Gray had received 50mm as of 9am and Friendly Beach 44mm, which is the heaviest in two months for both locations.

A severe weather warning was re-issued at 10am for the state's east and northeast, where a low may cause another 50-100mm of rain and damaging winds during the next few hours. Wind and rain will ease tonight as the low moves away into the Tasman Sea.

Looking ahead, New South Wales and Queensland are next in line for severe weather from this system. A trough extending north through both states will generate violent thunderstorms today.

Showers and storms have already crossed western and southern parts of New south Wales this morning and are now affecting central districts. Remaining northern and eastern areas of the state will be impcted as the trough moves towards the Tasman Sea later today.

There is potential for violent storms in parts of New South Wales today, even supercells in some central and northern areas. A severe thunderstorm warning was issued shortly after 9:30am for damaging winds over the central slopes and ranges and surrounding areas. A severe weather warning is also in place for damaging winds over the Snowy Mountain independent of storms.

In Queensland, storms are likely over parts of the state's northern, western, central inland and southern districts today, including the southeast. Severe storms are most likely to develop over the Darling Downs and adjacent parts of the Maranoa/Warrego and South East Coast districts. Storms will be fast moving, so damaging winds will be the main threat in these areas, although flash flooding and large hail cannot be ruled out.

Stay up to date with the latest severe weather and storm warnings at http://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings.jsp and call the SES for emergency assistance.

- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2017

Enter a postcode or town name for local weather, or text to search the site. » advanced search

Weather News

» all stories

Rainfall to soak some parched areas of WA

13:00 AEST Rain could finally fall over parts of southwestern WA over the next week, wetting areas that have barely seen any rain for months. This rainfall will be caused by a low pressure trough extending from the Kimberley down to southwestern WA from late Thursday, with a low pressure system developing within it early to mid-next week. The images below shows that widespread rainfall of between 15 to 30mm is forecast in the week across western and southern WA, with isolated falls of between 40 to 60mm in the Gascoyne and Goldfields districts. Image: Accumulated rainfall to 8pm AWST on Thursday, May 2, according to Access (top) and ECMWF (bottom) You can see there is still some uncertainty about where and how much rainfall will fall in these areas late this week and early next week, with one model placing rain over Perth and the other predicting it will completely miss the city altogether. The heaviest rainfall days are likely to be Friday and mid next week when the low pressure system develops.