Huge storm to unleash across 4000km of Australia
It might be time to invest in a sturdy umbrella, with two thirds of Australia set to be smashed with massive amounts of rain in the next few days.
Bands of heavy rains are predicted to stretch 4000km around the country, with severe flood and thunderstorm warnings issued across eastern parts of the country.
"Essentially [it's] just one big band of moisture stretching from the NT through Queensland, New South Wales actually down through Victoria and off the east coast, almost across to New Zealand," Tom Hough from Weatherzone told Yahoo News Australia.
The rain is set to fall over the next 24 hours, although it's not predicted to fall all at once.
"We have scattered isolated thunderstorms stretching from almost Kimberley far northern border of the NT, all the way around across northern NT [then] stretching through Queensland and then down through New South Wales as well," Mr Hough explained.
"It's not one consistent, big band of rain. It's kind of broken up but it does stretch that entire region."
Flood watches are in place for four states, with heavy rain likely to fall over already saturated soil in parts of #QLD, #NSW, #Victoria and #SouthAustralia during the next 48 hours. ⚠️
More at https://t.co/a4husj6aXW #FloodWatch #Flooding pic.twitter.com/XI6rcxgAFa— Weatherzone (@weatherzone) November 24, 2021
Flood warnings in several areas of the country
The Bureau of Meteorology has warned almost every state will be seeing some rain, which will hopefully ease on Monday.
Agata Imielska from BoM said that although some areas may not seem like they are receiving much rain, catchments are already nearing full from previous weeks' wet weather.
"Some areas might not seem like that much rainfall falling but when things are wet and catchments are wet — especially when the rain falls in a short period of time — it really changes conditions quite rapidly," Ms Imielska told Yahoo News Australia.
"In terms of catchment — because things are wet — we are we do have a number of flood warnings current across parts of Victoria, quite a large area across New South Wales and Queensland, especially."
La Niña weather event declared
The Bureau of Meteorology officially declared a La Niña event on Tuesday.
According to BoM, in a La Niña event rainfall becomes focused in the western tropical Pacific which leads to a wetter than normal period for eastern, northern and central parts of Australia.
BoM said the La Niña is likely to persist until at least the end of January 2022.
“La Niña also increases the chance of cooler than average daytime temperatures for large parts of Australia and can increase the number of tropical cyclones that form," Andrew Watkins, the Bureau of Meteorology's head of operational climate services said in a press conference on Tuesday.
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