Millions to cop drenching as storms set to linger for days
The beach party’s over for Sydneysiders.
After the city enjoyed its first day over 30 degrees in nearly a year on Wednesday, storms and torrential rain hit overnight as a cooling southerly change moved in. Forecasters warn the rain will hang around for days.
“We've still got that trough in front, crossing the region, extending over central parts of the east coast and then into northern NSW,” Felix Levesque from Weatherzone told Yahoo News Australia on Thursday. “So that's slowly going to make its way up into northern NSW today.”
With temperatures still in their high 20s around the Northern Rivers, the meteorologist says this could trigger thunderstorms spreading across the northeast of the state before cooler conditions move in.
“The passage of that front trough risks bringing scattered thunderstorms over northeastern NSW and those might bring about some gusty winds, possibly heavy rainfall and maybe some hail over the northeastern inland as well,” said Mr Levesque.
Up to 40mm of rain set to fall in NSW
As conditions worsen across NSW, the Mid North Coast is expected to cop the brunt of the rain on Thursday.
“So the Mid North Coast, Northern Rivers and then extending into the Northern Tablelands will probably see widespread falls of about 10 to 20 millimetres, with more isolated falls between 30 and 40 millimetres,” Mr Levesque said, “especially with any thunderstorms that do come about delivering some heavier falls over parts".
While the front is expected to clear off early on Friday morning, a persistent onshore low will keep moisture feeding into parts of the Northern Rivers with up to 20mm set to fall tomorrow. By Saturday it’ll ease up as a high pressure bridge builds over the region, before a deepening low pressure trough moves in from Sunday, bringing heavier widespread falls of up to 40mm over Central, Central Eastern and then northern NSW.
Potential cyclone Freddy builds off Queensland's coast
Meanwhile Far North Queensland has also been put on alert with a potential cyclone brewing in the Coral Sea.
While conditions have eased across the state following the deluge that hit homes and roads earlier this week, a low pressure system could soon become a tropical system over the Coral Sea.
Based on current models, there is a moderate to high chance this could happen before Saturday. If it does, the system will be called Freddy and become the third cyclone to be named by Australia so far this season.
Wild weather to batter Victoria
In Victoria conditions are patchy but a high pressure ridge on Saturday is likely to bring some wild weather.
“That trough over NSW and Queensland will deepen over northern Victoria but it looks very isolated and not as significant as past fontal and trough passages over the region,” Mr Levesque said. “So it looks like more isolated showers and storms over most of the north of the state into next week, extending over eastern parts into the next week.”
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