Severe Storms, Rain Batter Eastern Australia

Taking a look at the driving weather feature behind this wet and stormy weather, we can see an extensive cloud band stretching from the north-west of the country out to the east coast. Behind that cloud band, we've got a low-pressure system and associated cold front starting to spin up to the south of South Australia. That low is going to help direct this cloud band towards the east over the next two days.

Taking a look at how today is going to play out. Rain, showers and thunderstorms will continue underneath that cloud band spanning multiple states. A low-pressure system to the south of the continent is going to move up and across South Australia during the later part of today, bringing a fresh burst of showers for parts of southern and eastern South Australia, including around the Adelaide area.

Now, for the most part today, rainfall totals are going to be fairly moderate, 10 mm to 30 mm in most areas is what we're looking at, but we could see some higher falls of 30 mm to 60 mm across northern parts of New South Wales. We'll also see some higher falls where thunderstorms play a part.

Now, today storms are possible underneath that cloud band spanning multiple states once again. That risk extends through eastern parts of South Australia, pushing down into the northern suburbs of Adelaide as well. But the areas we really want to focus on are the yellow and red contours on this map, which show us where severe storms are possible or likely.

Now, any severe thunderstorms today may bring us damaging winds, locally heavy falls and large hail. But there is a key area we really do want to focus on, that is close to that border meeting area of Queensland, South Australia and New South Wales. In that area, we may see high-end severe thunderstorms with locally destructive winds and giant-sized hail potentially exceeding 5 cm in diameter.

Now, if you or anyone you know lives within these thunderstorms, particularly severe thunderstorm areas, make sure you keep a close eye on the warnings page on the Bureau's website today, as we will be issuing Severe Thunderstorm Warnings as this weather develops.

Taking a look at tomorrow now, we're going to see our low-pressure system moving east. Showers continuing through parts of South Australia pushing into northern Victoria, as well as continuing over parts of New South Wales and southern Queensland. By Wednesday afternoon, we're likely to see some clearing in that wet weather through central parts of the country with a return of dry weather at last.

However, the wettest weather is yet to come, particularly for parts of the east coast, where we're seeing a low-pressure system starting to play its part. This system will move off the coast through the later part of Wednesday into early Thursday. It will linger there and draw in moisture and strong winds, directing them against the coast and potentially leading to further severe weather for areas between the Hunter and the South Coast.

We are likely to see some damaging wind gusts along the coasts, large waves developing and the risk of heavy falls continuing. We could see 50 mm to 80 mm through Wednesday, isolated falls in excess of 100 mm with that wet weather continuing into Thursday morning.

Now our rainfall accumulations from midnight last night all the way out to Thursday morning tell us the same story, that the focus of the rainfall is really going to be about those central and southern tablelands and western slopes of New South Wales, pushing out across the coast as well. The key risk area is about the Illawarra and parts of the South Coast. We may issue a Severe Weather Warning for heavy rainfall in those areas later today, really flagging that risk for late Wednesday into early Thursday.

Now thunderstorms will play a part on Wednesday and Thursday as well. This is Wednesday's thunderstorm forecast here. You can see that storms are once again possible underneath that cloud band, but the risk of severe storms is really focused through New South Wales. Once again, severe storms could bring us damaging winds, heavy rainfall or large hail.

Key hazards we are wanting to focus on with the severe weather ahead. Severe storms could bring damage to trees, properties or power lines. Now that's the strong winds associated with the storms or the large hail. We are also likely to see flash flooding, where we see heavy falls associated with thunderstorms, or about those coastal areas on Wednesday night. We could also see some very dangerous driving conditions emerging over the next few days, where that severe weather hits.

Now, how will this play out through the rest of Thursday? Well, the good news is the low-pressure system doesn't linger. It moves off the coast very quickly, taking most of that wet weather with it. So it will be a much drier end to the day on Thursday and a drier end to the week as well as we move into Friday. We may see some large waves, hazardous or damaging surf continuing up the New South Wales coast through that end of the week but mainland areas are likely to see a very dry end to the week.

Now, with this wet and stormy weather continuing today and tomorrow in particular, it is essential to stay on top of the latest forecasts and warnings via the Bureau's website, the BOM Weather app, and via our social media. Stay safe and we'll catch you in the next update.