A massive rain band intensifying over the middle of the country is set to move east over the weekend, bringing a soggy and chilly start to the school holidays for thousands of students.
While NSW had the driest June on record, students enjoying the start of their mid-year school holidays may be forced to stay inside.
Winter holidays may have already started in Victoria, Queensland and the Northern Territory, but now it’s time for students in NSW, the ACT and Western Australia to get their two-week break.
Aussies have been told to brace for a wild start to July, with a drop in temperatures and heavy rains expected to hit the monthly average in the first week.
Senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology Sarah Scully told NCA NewsWire the biggest weather system affecting the country this week is a “rain band that’s intensifying over northern parts of the country”.
The massive weather system is currently sitting over northern Western Australia and parts of the Northern Territory, where it continues to build.
“It’s a really broad rainband that will affect large parts of the country, including central and eastern parts of the country into next week,” Ms Scully said.
While it is bringing widespread rain, there are also massive and unprecedented drops in temperature.
Temperatures in parts of northern WA and the NT will hit 14-16C below the June average over the coming days.
“It’s an unseasonable rain band,” Ms Scully said.
“It’s usually the dry season this time up north, so there’s the potential for a lot of campers and travellers to be impacted.”
She said many unsealed roads in the NT and Queensland will be impacted by the rainfall, with road closures expected while rivers and creeks are forecast to overflow.
Some areas of inland WA, SA and the NT have already collected multiple months worth of rain in just a couple of days, causing localised flooding and cut off roads.
By next Wednesday, the rain is expected to hit most states and territories across the country.
NORTHERN TERRITORY
While the Northern Territory has bore the brunt of the weather system, it is now facing shockingly chilly temperatures.
Temperatures up to 16C lower than the monthly averages are expected for the weekend.
“The rain band is expected to continue to develop over the next couple of days before becoming mobile and move eastwards into Queensland,” Ms Scully said.
She said the weather was “really interesting” for the Northern Territory as it is usually the dry season.
“Temperatures in parts will be up to 16C below the June average,” Ms Scully said.
“For instance on Saturday there may be single digit maximums through parts of southern NT, an 8C maximum for Alice Springs.”
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Ms Scully said the rain band had affected Western Australia from Thursday, intensifying over the north of the state before it began travelling east.
The Kimberley region has been hit the hardest, with cooler temperatures also being forecast.
However, Ms Scully said the weather is expected to clear by the end of Sunday.
In southern parts of the state a could front is approaching and is predicted to push onto land in the early hours of Monday morning.
“It looks like it might be quite windy, it’s got a bit of a punch in it,” Ms Scully said.
“It will bring the usual gusty showers and storms potentially.”
Sky News Australia meteorologist Bradlyn Oakes said areas of the Kimberley experienced almost an entire season worth of rain on Friday.
The rainfall follows above-average falls in June, most of which fell in the past week in the outback.
“Over the month through to the end of June we saw many areas seeing over 400 per cent of their monthly rainfall,” Ms Oakes said.
QUEENSLAND
Queensland will experience extensive cloud cover and widespread rain for the middle weekend of the two-week school holidays.
Ms Scully said “well below average” temperatures are forecast, with the rain moving over into the state gradually on Sunday and Monday.
Parts of Queensland could see rainfall between 20-50mm, in addition to some locally heavy falls.
“There is the potential for flood watches and severe weather warnings to be issued,” Ms Scully said.
The meteorologist said for southeast Queensland such as the Gold Coast and Brisbane, the cities will have a real change in weather on Monday.
The wet conditions will continue from Monday into Tuesday.
NEW SOUTH WALES
While NSW won’t see the effects of the rain band until well into next week, Saturday will still have chances of showers for much of the southern and western areas.
However, Ms Scully said the east coast is expected to be generally dry over the weekend.
“It’s not until Monday that the rain band will start pushing into northwestern parts of NSW during the day, reaching eastern parts on Tuesday,” Ms Scully said.
NSW is expected to see some rain, but it won’t be anywhere near as much as Queensland, with just 10-20mm forecast.
AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Canberra will see a mostly dry weekend, with low temperatures of -1 and frosty mornings through to Tuesday.
Rain will arrive in the capital on Tuesday as a result of the rain band, however it won’t be hit as hard as other parts of the country.
Temperatures won’t rise to more than 14C throughout the week.
VICTORIA
Ms Scully said Victoria is expected to remain cloudy and rainy for the remainder of the week.
However, there’s a positive with a “good accumulation of snow” across the snowfields over the weekend, meaning anyone looking to go skiing over the break will be met with plenty of powder.
A high pressure system is expected to clear the rain around Melbourne on the weekend.
But Ms Scully said there is still a potential for the rain band to affect Victoria on Tuesday and Wednesday as it continues to move east.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
While southern parts of South Australia have managed to miss out on the mass weather event, outback areas have been battered by rain.
In Adelaide, Saturday and Sunday are expected to be sunny but chilly, with maximum temperatures of just 16C.
The rain band is expected to bring heavy falls to northern parts of the state, Ms Scully said.
TASMANIA
Tasmania will see much of its regular winter weather with temperatures sitting below 15C over the weekend and into next week.
Light winds and rains are forecast for Hobart on Saturday before the cloud parts.
But it will return on Tuesday and remain for the rest of the week, with showers also possible.
A marine wind warning is in place for Saturday, with strong winds expected in: Storm Bay, Far North West Coast, Central North Coast, East of Flinders Island, Upper East Coast, Lower East Coast, South East Coast and South West Coast.