Weather News

Wild mix of weather ahead for southeastern Australia

Ben Domensino, Wednesday November 21, 2018 - 10:10 AEDT

A deep low pressure system will cause showers, thunderstorms, damaging winds, hail, snow and dust storms as it crosses southeastern Australia during the next two days.

A large pool of cold air travelling north from the Southern Ocean will reach Australia’s southern coastline today. This frigid Antarctic air mass has caused a deep low pressure system to form in the Bight, which will traverse southeastern Australia during the next 48 hours.

Image: Satellite picture showing the deep low pressure system over the Bight on Wednesday morning.

The combination of the deep low and the pool of cold air will generate a mix of volatile weather in parts of South Australia, Tasmania, NSW, Victoria and the ACT on Wednesday and Thursday.

Damaging winds are likely to affect central and southern districts of South Australia today and on Thursday morning as the low moves over the state. Strong winds will then spread across NSW and Victoria on Thursday as the low continues to move towards the east.

This system is likely to cause a widespread and sustained period of fresh to strong westerly winds across the parched Murray Darling Basin, which just experienced its third driest January to October period on record. As a result, dry topsoil is likely to become airborne and could potentially lead to widespread dust storms across rural and urban areas. According to the Bureau of Meteorology, raised dust may reach populated centres in eastern NSW and the ACT, including Sydney and Canberra.

Image: Strong winds are likely to cause areas of raised dust across southeastern Australia on Thursday.

Showers and thunderstorms will also spread over parts of SA, Victoria, Tasmania and southern NSW between Wednesday and Friday with the passage of the low. Some storms are likely to produce small hail and showers will fall as snow above about 1000m in the alps, likely bringing 20-30cm of fresh snow to some areas.

The low will slowly move out into the Tasman Sea from Friday, although it will remain close enough to Australia to maintain blustery winds, showers and large surf in parts of Tasmania, Victoria and NSW until at least Sunday.

Visit http://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings.jsp for the latest warnings.

- Weatherzone

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