Widespread rain, with moderate to heavy falls, to soak much of southern and eastern Australia later this week. And this is great news for the many areas that have missed out on the rainfall over the last through 6, 12 and even 18 months, particularly through southern parts of South Australia and western Victoria. I'm going to take you through the weather system that's going to drive all this rain across the country later this week.
So starting tonight into tomorrow, you'll note there's two systems. We've got a bit of a weak low off the WA coast and this strong cold front coming up from the south-west. Now they're going to interact as we get through Wednesday afternoon as this front taps into the tropical moisture, producing widespread showers and patchy rain through coastal parts of WA and even into the south-west corner, with light, patchy rain extending through inland parts of WA.
Then, as we move into Wednesday night, we'll really start to see this build as we move through Wednesday night and Thursday as this front continues to move across WA, tapping into that tropical moisture across the Indian Ocean and dragging it down into southern and central parts of the country. So by Thursday afternoon, we're going to see widespread rain through parts of WA and starting to develop through western and northern parts of South Australia and southern parts of the NT.
Then by Thursday night, you'll notice this system starting to build a really large band of rain extending pretty much from the Pilbara all the way down into southern parts of South Australia. And that's only going to build further as we move through Thursday night and Friday, as a low pressure system develops in the Great Australian Bight and really starts tapping into not only Indian Ocean moisture from the north-west, but also starts tapping into some Coral Sea moisture coming down from the north and north-east.
And as it does so, you can see this large rain band continues to broaden and strengthen as it moves through central Australia, as we move through Friday night. And notice by Friday afternoon, you can see widespread rainfall for agricultural areas of South Australia, both southern and northern agricultural areas, as well as much of the Adelaide area, eastern South Australia, and starting to move into north-western parts of Victoria, where places like Renmark and Mildura have only had 30 or 40mm year to date in the last six months. So that's extremely dry conditions.
Also note this widespread rain extending into western New South Wales, into northern and eastern South Australia, and even getting up into southern parts of the NT as we move through Friday afternoon and Friday night. Then Friday night into Saturday, this whole system will continue to move eastwards and then start interacting with moisture through Queensland and New South Wales, continuing to strengthen and broaden this band of rain as it does so. But notice on the backside of the low will be spreading strong and gusty winds and more widespread showers through parts of South Australia.
Then Saturday, we'll notice a band of rain from the Gulf all the way down to Tasmania, with moderate falls through Queensland and then wrapping back into Tasmania with showers and wrapping back over south-eastern parts of the country on Friday night, Saturday and Sunday. And all in all, that's going to bring widespread soaking rain to much of the country. Great news for those that desperately need it through southern areas.
So how does that look? You can see this rain starts building across WA. Just light to moderate falls for our inland areas, moderate to heavy about coastal areas. Then watch it really arc up as it gets across central and then eastern parts of the country as it enters the moisture streaming in from the north and north-east. As you can see here, we are looking at widespread totals of 20, 30 to 40mm from now until we get to Sunday morning. But by the time we get to the end of the weekend, we can see even larger rainfall totals.
So for most areas of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, eastern and southern Queensland, we could see widespread 25 to 50mm, particularly for all our agricultural areas of South Australia and much of Victoria, inland New South Wales as well. And these red areas show areas where we could see falls in excess of 50mm through the Mount Lofty Ranges, possibly including the Adelaide area, much of northern and north-eastern Victoria, northern Tasmania and also parts of eastern Queensland as well. But note very little if any rainfall getting to coastal parts of New South Wales or east Gippsland due to the mountains blocking the rain there.
So this is great news for those that have really been crying out for rainfall through southern and eastern inland parts of the country. So remember to get the latest forecast and warnings for your location for this upcoming rain event via our website and app, and we'll continue to keep you updated during the week.
