Sydney is in for a weekend of fine weather after rain offers some relief to firefighters battling blazes in NSW and Queensland.
The NSW capital experienced its wettest weather in months to Friday morning, with up to 12mm of rain falling in the north and up to 4mm falling in the city centre.
Those hoping for some sunny weather are in luck, with the sun expected to shine across the country this weekend according to Sky News Meteorologist Rob Sharpe.
“Those showers on the East Coast are easing or just have a little front clipping Tasmania on Saturday before we see the next property move in at the start of next week,” he said.
“…by Sunday, its generally dry across the country with a couple of showers developing around the southwest corner as that next front starts to move in.”
Clouds will still be about in Sydney on Saturday with a high of 21C expected before things get warm and sunny on Sunday with a maximum of 26C.
The wet weather was a welcome change after lightning started more than 30 new fires in NSW, the thunderstorms have given way to showers which are hoped to bring a cool change to help with firefighting efforts.
A fire near Nymboida, 44km southwest of Grafton in the Northern Rivers region, burnt so intensely on Thursday it created its own thunderstorm.
“This is an extremely dangerous situation, with these storms having the potential to create erratic winds, dry lightning and rapidly increase the fires spread and behaviour,” NSW Rural Fire Service warned residents.
Luckily, heavy rainfall will fall across fire affected areas in NSW’s north, with Mr Sharpe saying that any area north of Newcastle has “done quite well”.
“In some areas it was the heaviest rain in more than a year, that‘s Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie both with substantial falls above 60 millimetres…there‘s still a stream of showers hitting the coast and there’s a little bit heading inland as well,” he said.
“Thankfully, no more thunderstorms today as a rule of thumb, that seems to be done.
“It‘s now just back to significant wet weather and hopefully it will come up towards that region around Tenterfield where most of those new fire starts are.”
The system is also expected to move north into south east Queensland which is heavily impacted by fires, bringing some relief.
“Hopefully there‘s enough rain today to put out some more of those fires,” Mr Sharpe said.
Warm and dry weather will make its way up the entire east coast, with temperatures in the mid 20s as showers ease into a sunny Sunday.
Outside of those rain affected areas in NSW and Queensland, Tasmania will be one of the few places to experience rain this weekend, with showers developing Saturday.
Melbourne is in for a warm one, with the mercury to hit 26C on Sunday before falling back into rain for the start of the week.
Brisbane will be in for similar temperatures with some clouds about and a bit of wind each morning this weekend.
Adelaide will see its temperatures hit 25C on Saturday before dipping a bit on Sunday, however there will be plenty of sun about.
Away from the rain, Perth is set for at least a week of sunny weather with temperatures hovering around 20C over the weekend.