Severe Storms Threaten Eastern Australia

Storms on the forecast across Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra and many other areas across eastern Australia could lead to localised power outages, as well as damage to trees, property and crops as well. So, let's take a look at what's happening at the moment, as we speak around 11:30 am on Sunday morning. We've already got this Severe Thunderstorm Warning current. You can see this line of storms rolling through western New South Wales.

It's already brought damaging winds this morning, and it extends into north-east Victoria as well. Behind this, we've got this rain band that's been bringing plenty of rain through the night through South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania as well. Let's have a look at how much has fallen. We've seen 30 to 40 mm in parts of central Victoria, including around Geelong, Ballarat and parts of Melbourne too.

Now, if you're from Queensland, it doesn't sound like much, but for Victoria, for Melbourne, that's enough rain to cause all sorts of issues, cause water can pile up under some of the rail bridges. So, if you're getting around Melbourne this afternoon, please take care. Drive to the conditions. Don't enter the floodwaters at Dudley Street and at York Street in South Melbourne. It's a bad idea.

Meanwhile, further north in the Wide Bay & Burnett, there was heavy rain that fell overnight Saturday night into early Sunday morning. 100 to 200 mm in many of our rain gauges there. Now that's led to flood warnings increasing and developing in different catchments across Queensland. We've got these warnings in western Queensland, which are mostly from rain that fell a few days ago, a couple of warnings through the Darling Downs as well, and then some warnings here through the south-east, including the Mary River downstream of Gympie.

So major flooding is possible at Tiaro there later on Sunday night and into early Monday morning from that rain that fell during the night. Now let's take a look at what's to come in terms of the weather pattern this afternoon. We see this cold front and trough extending through New South Wales. That's going to be the main focus for those severe thunderstorms through New South Wales and adjacent states this afternoon.

Plenty of wet weather continuing more broadly through eastern Queensland, so thunderstorms with heavy rain are a risk there, as we'll see in a minute with the thunderstorm map here. So, we've got heavy rain possible and severe thunderstorms right through much of Queensland. But then this red area is the real focus.

Severe thunderstorms likely in this area right across western New South Wales, including the ACT in Canberra, maybe in the late afternoon for Canberra, through eastern Victoria as well, and even up into southern Queensland as well. So severe thunderstorms likely in those areas. Those parts could see the trifecta, as we call it: large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain in thunderstorms there.

Thunderstorms through eastern Queensland. As I mentioned, heavy rain is the main risk there, which will lead to flash flooding quickly with any further rain that falls after what's been an incredibly wet week across much of south-east Queensland, and then severe storms could reach Sydney in the evening, maybe after 8:00 or a bit later still, even bringing damaging winds and heavy rain, possibly for Sydney and the other major centres along the east coast.

Now it's worth highlighting as well. There's a couple of areas through here in north-east Victoria and southern New South Wales, and also up through the north-west slopes and plains here. These are the areas that our thunderstorm team are paying extra attention to today, because stronger thunderstorms that develop in these areas could bring destructive wind gusts of over 125 km/h.

So those are the areas at risk. There may only be one or two storm cells within each area, but that's worth paying extra attention to. And if you live in those areas, please keep an eye on the radar and the warnings through this afternoon and the early evening. Now, we'll take a look ahead at tomorrow and we'll see the cold front race up the coast of New South Wales there.

That's going to be the main focus again for thunderstorms to probably continue through Sunday night and then fire up again on Monday through north-east New South Wales and south-east Queensland. We'll see that in the forecast here. Severe thunderstorms likely up the north coast of New South Wales from Coffs Harbour and just south of there, up through the Northern Rivers and then into inland parts of south-east Queensland.

So, including Toowoomba, there, Ipswich, the Northern Rivers as well. And those thunderstorms could bring again the trifecta: damaging winds, large hail and heavy rainfall there, with again that broader risk of severe thunderstorms once again through a large area of Queensland. So that's all we've got for you for now. Please keep across the radar and the latest warnings. Those warnings that we showed you before, they will update rapidly through the day.

So, keep across the latest warnings and keep an eye on the radar. Drive to the conditions. Do not enter floodwaters. Thanks for watching. Stay safe.