Wet weather forecast for Sunday. Photo / Sky News Weather
Wet weather forecast for Sunday. Photo / Sky News Weather
Flooding could return to existing disaster zones in Australia, with the east coast in for a wet week, as a tropical cyclone is tipped to also cause widespread rain on the other side of the country.
Australia's Bureau of Meteorology has warned NSW residents parts of their state, including its capital, could see up to 100mm of rainfall over the next four days – with 150mm to fall to next Wednesday.
The wet weather comes with a cool change crossing the southeast of the country on Tuesday.
Sky News Weather meteorologist Rob Sharpe said a band of rain would set up for Tasmania in the afternoon, while showers and the odd thunderstorm are expected for Victoria. Storms could be severe in eastern parts of the state with damaging winds and heavy rain.
Keep one eye on the sky and the other eye on the BoM radar (https://t.co/oNnKjUCZbR). Chance of thunderstorms across most of Victoria this afternoon, possibly severe in the east. pic.twitter.com/uwaPDY1wMr
— Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria (@BOM_Vic) March 21, 2022
The cool change will cross the border into NSW overnight and as it moves up into the Sydney area there is potential for thunderstorms likely in the late morning and into the afternoon on Wednesday.
Sharpe said the cool change was then going to stall.
Wet weather forecast for Sunday. Photo / Sky News Weather
"Any time you get a stalled weather system, it spurns trouble of some sort," he said. "In this case it's the wet weather kind of trouble."
Showers are expected to continue along the NSW coast through the rest of the week and thunderstorms look to occur daily through inland areas.
Over the next 4 days parts of #NSW coast could see up to 100mm of rain. A trough is moving over the region and today's the last settled weather day for the rest of the week with showers expected in the east from tomorrow. Check forecasts, monitor warnings: https://t.co/BhXl8NR660pic.twitter.com/GDxCgP6rMy
— Bureau of Meteorology, New South Wales (@BOM_NSW) March 21, 2022
The bulk of those storms are expected to hit from Friday and into the weekend in northern NSW, and up into inland parts of Queensland.
Sharpe warned rain totals would quickly accumulate through the weekend.
"What we're talking about for these flood affected areas is the nuisance rainfall for the clean-up, unfortunately it's going to cause water levels to rise," he said looking at the eight-day rain total forecast.
"There's likely to be at least minor riverine flooding as well. So the rain event won't be as bad, but it's going to have significant impacts on those disaster zones in the northeast of NSW and southeastern Queensland."
Eight day rain total. Photo / Sky News Weather
Cool change
BOM has forecast a low of 15C and high of 20C for Melbourne on Wednesday, with minimum temperatures of 12C-13C over the next few days.
On Saturday it will heat up again with a low of 14C and a high of 26C, and on Sunday there will be a low of 16C and high of 25C.
In Sydney, temperatures will drop heading into the weekend.
A low of 20C and high of 26C is forecast on Wednesday, followed by a low of 19C and high of 24C on Thursday, and low of 18C over the next four days. Sunday and Monday will see a high of 25C after a slight drop in temperatures.
On the other side of Australia, tropical cyclone Charlotte reached category 3 (severe) overnight and is expected to intensify further during Tuesday.
Overnight, Tropical #CycloneCharlotte was upgraded to category 3 - a Severe Tropical Cyclone. The system is expected to intensify further today, then as it moves into a less favourable environment tonight, it is forecast to begin weakening. Track map: https://t.co/W4cK7X7uKxpic.twitter.com/u1aJ1wOOA9
— Bureau of Meteorology, Western Australia (@BOM_WA) March 21, 2022
But BOM forecasts the cyclone will begin to weaken from tonight and it is expected to stay "well offshore" from the mainland.
Sharpe said from Saturday and into the start of next week there is potential for showers and thunderstorms through western parts of WA.
"At this stage, the average of the forecast models has 10-50mm widespread (rain) across the west of the state," he said.
