An enormous 1400km stretch of the Australian coastline is set to be smashed by severe weather in the coming days as major systems rage, bringing rain and thunderstorms.
Storms are predicted from Thursday for an area stretching from New South Wales’ Illawarra region to Queensland’s Wide Bay
A series of upper-level troughs are expected to trigger the wet weather for large parts of the country over the next seven to 10 days, with a deepening low pressure trough bringing showers and thunderstorms over eastern Australia.
Most forecast models suggest this wet and stormy weather will continue into the first half of next week across a broad area of the nation’s east and north, according to Weatherzone.
The dynamic nature of the weather pattern, set to involve several upper-level and surface-based troughs, was making it difficult for meteorologists to predict where and how much rain will fall over the next week.
Early forecasts indicated rain and storms would affect part of every state and territory over the next seven days, with heavy falls possible over Qld, NSW and Central Australia. Some thunderstorms are expected to become severe and heavy rain could cause flash flooding in some states.
The wet conditions were attributable to a positive phase of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), which has increased the flow over moisture over Australia from the east in the last couple of weeks.
Early modelling had also suggested above average rainfall for much of southern and southeastern Australia in December.
The country’s northern tropics however, were expected to be drier than usual as El Niño delays the start of the wet season.
The Bureau of Meteorology on Thursday afternoon said storms across the country were forecast, “with a possibility of daily severe weather, including heavy rainfall, damaging wind gusts and large hail”.
Queensland could receive its most significant rainfall in months, BOM said.
“Severe storms with large hail, damaging winds & heavy rain possible for the eastern Darling Downs, Wide Bay and Burnett and southeast Queensland (excluding the Gold Coast),” a tweet from the bureau said, adding there was a “risk of very dangerous storms inland”.
In New South Wales, severe thunderstorms were expected for Thursday along the northern half of the NSW ranges and adjacent coastal districts, the BOM said.
Conditions were expected to clear for the weekend however, with mild temperatures and a few clouds.
Meanwhile, in northwest Queensland, heatwave warnings are in place for “low to severe intensity heatwave conditions”.
As conditions intensify north, they’re expected to begin easing from southeast inland and then central Queensland.
Longreach climbed to 44.4 degrees on Thursday, eight degrees above the November average.
Heatwave warnings are also in place for South Australia, while Western Australia remains clear and sunny.
The ACT can expect showers Thursday before mostly clear skies throughout the weekend.
Thursday was partially rainy for Victoria, but the rain was expected to clear in time for the weekend while cloudy skies were expected to remain throughout next week.
Cloud coverage was also expected in Tasmania, where a top of 21 degrees was expected for the weekend.
Intermittent rain was expected in Northern Territory’s capital, Darwin, before the weekend before conditions were forecast to clear and reach a top of 35 on Sunday.