Severe Weather: Heavy Rain Hits SA, Victoria This Weekend

But it really is the Eyre Peninsula and the West Coast of South Australia where we're seeing the most rainfall in the 24 hours to 9:00 this morning. Ceduna having 75 mm and Wudinna having 69 mm. And that, both for those locations, was their wettest day on record. We even saw a few locations experience 100 mm. And this is the most rain we've seen here for many months.

Adelaide has seen around 10 mm, but much more to come. And many other areas are going to see widespread heavy rainfall today, tonight and into Sunday. And because of that, Severe Weather Warnings are current for large parts of South Australia and also extending into far western parts of Victoria and New South Wales. So if you live in this yellow highlighted area, or know someone that does, that means today's rainfall into tomorrow is likely to lead to heavy falls that will lead to flash and possible riverine flooding in these areas.

And for some locations, the rainfall could be heavy enough to cause inundation of homes, properties, businesses and agricultural land. But that'll be more on a localised scale. But it's a very large area of South Australia and parts of Victoria and New South Wales that are likely to see this heavy rainfall today, tonight into tomorrow. And a key component of that is widespread thunderstorm activity that we're expecting today and tomorrow.

So focusing on that for today, we can see a large area of thunderstorms forecasting. But it's these red areas that are of most concern, where thunderstorms developing in these red highlighted areas are likely to see heavy to intense rainfall that can lead to localised and possibly dangerous flash flooding through much of inland South Australia and the western parts of the state, but also around the NT-South Australia border as well. With severe thunderstorms possible in the yellow highlighted area across much of southern and western Victoria and much of South Australia.

Then, moving into Sunday, we can see a similar area expected to see these heavy thunderstorms through much of eastern and southern South Australia. That does include the Adelaide metropolitan area, where we could see heavy thunderstorms there tonight and tomorrow, bringing flash flooding there, but also for many of our inland areas and also extending into western parts of Victoria.

So let's look at all of this in more detail. So as we can see, that widespread rain that we have seen through much of those western and central areas, expanding this afternoon and also developing further east across western New South Wales and possibly border areas of Victoria, with rainfall increasing around central and south-eastern South Australia. Then overnight tonight, that band of heavy rainfall will move into western parts of Victoria and New South Wales.

Then that tropical low that's been causing all that heavy rainfall through central parts of the country is finally on the move south through South Australia. And that's going to bring another round of very heavy rainfall on Sunday. So we'll see that rain and storms on Saturday night and Sunday morning through Victoria and western New South Wales. Then as this tropical low moves south, we'll see another round of severe thunderstorms and very heavy rainfall developing through central and eastern parts of South Australia, including around the Adelaide area.

Then on Sunday night, we'll see the focus of that rain shifting to western Victoria and south-west New South Wales, with very heavy falls likely there, leading to flash and riverine flooding. And as we get into Monday afternoon and Monday night, that threat moves into inland New South Wales. But that low does finally weaken. But notice the rain finally clears out of South Australia as we get into Monday night.

So how much rainfall are we talking about? Well, as you can imagine, widespread falls of 50 mm to 100 mm, with isolated falls up to and exceeding 150 mm possible, particularly in these black or dark purple areas you see here. But you can see many of our agricultural areas expecting widespread 50 mm to 100 mm over the next 48 hours. And while the first half of that is probably good news, once you start talking about those 100 mm falls, we start to see impacts of topsoil washing away and also a fair bit of localised flash flooding.

But a big soaking rainfall event on the way for much of South Australia, Victoria and western New South Wales. And because of that, you can imagine we have widespread Flood Warnings current for large parts of South Australia, western Victoria and western New South Wales. And with the rainfall that we've seen over the last week, we've also seen widespread Flood Warnings current across much of inland Queensland as well, with major flooding occurring on the Eyre Creek, the Cooper Creek, the Thomson River, the Flinders River and the Georgina River as well.

But huge Flood Warnings, sorry, Flood Watches are current for much of South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales in anticipation of that heavy rainfall I've just showed you earlier. And just to reiterate again some of the impacts of the rainfall over the weekend, we could see flash flooding and widespread road closures, particularly dirt roads, for inland parts of Victoria, New South Wales and especially South Australia.

Dangerous and hazardous driving conditions and travel conditions on the road, that includes the Adelaide metropolitan area. It's gonna be really messy road conditions there with that heavy rainfall. And as I mentioned, while welcome rainfall, that first 30 mm to 50 mm, once we get up to those 100 mm falls, we could have some bigger impacts.

So with a major rain and possible flood event on the way for much of southern and south-eastern Australia, make sure you stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings via our website and app. Listen to all advice from emergency services, and we'll continue to keep you updated here at the Bureau.