Strong Cold Front Targets Southern States

We can quite clearly see this band of rain that is our cold front. It reached the far south Western Capes during the early hours of this morning and through Friday morning has really worked onto the west coast, including into Perth. Now there were some severe thunderstorms earlier on this morning south of Perth, where we see these areas of orange and red, the heavier falls on the radar. We also saw some very strong wind gusts around this region. The severe thunderstorms have now eased, but it's quite a long stretch of wet and showery weather from Geraldton down to Albany. And it will continue to be so this afternoon, this cold front is going to cross the coast and gradually move inland in the west, bringing showers and the risk of a storm through the Wheatbelt, down through the Great Southern and down towards the south coast. We might even see some of that weather get as far inland as Kalgoorlie-Boulder by the very end of the day today.

Through the remainder of Friday, there does remain a risk of more thunderstorms about the West Coast, including the chance of severe thunderstorms here in this yellow region from Geraldton down to Albany. And if we do see severe thunderstorms, they can bring heavy rainfall and damaging winds. So don't rule out some more quite active weather across the West Coast during Friday afternoon and into the evening.

Let's see how this is going to change as we move into the weekend. We're now looking at Saturday and we'll continue to see most of this wet weather, this windy weather all push into central parts of Australia as it does slide eastwards. There is a couple of key things here I'd like to point out, firstly, we've got this very strong northerly wind flow racing across South Australia, also maybe parts of inland New South Wales and Queensland. Secondly, out to the west, even though this main front has already moved through, we've got the development of this low pressure area to the south and that's giving us another push of wet and windy conditions along this southern coastline.

Let's hone on just on the wind for a moment, we'll drop off the rainfall and highlight the areas of strong wind through the atmosphere. So clearly South Australia tomorrow is looking at some fairly windy conditions, but we also have this little strip of strong winds along the southern WA coastline in association with that low pressure area. These are the two spots southern WA, as well as parts of the South Australia coast where we're really worried about the potential for strong, damaging wind gusts during the day on Friday.

At the moment, just the one warning has been issued that is for South Australia here about parts of the Eyre Peninsula out towards the west coast as well. But do keep your eye on this stretch of coastline if you live in the south of Western Australia, there is a high chance that a severe weather warning will be issued for this stretch of coast later on, on Friday afternoon.

Through both of these areas, where we're likely to see warnings be issued. We have a range of potential impacts that could occur as these winds really ramp up on Saturday. Damage to trees and property being the primary impact that can occur in strong wind situations like this. But we can also see disruption to utilities like power outages. And we can also see things getting blown around the house. Outdoor furniture, trampolines, fences, even things like roof panels can really get buffeted around in these very strong wind conditions.

We'll continue to move forward through the weekend now picking up on Saturday, but seeing how things will evolve as we move into Sunday. And we'll continue to see this move eastwards with wind and rain moving into Victoria and Tasmania during Sunday. It will be warm, so it's quite different to the recent burst of colder wet conditions, but we've got some warm, wet and windy conditions moving across southeastern parts of Australia during Sunday. There may well be some warnings issued for that during the weekend, so if you're in south-eastern Australia, just keep an eye on your forecast and warnings as we get the latest updates rolling through on Saturday, then again on Sunday.

This is a look at the rainfall expected this weekend. The numbers aren't particularly large, it looks like southern parts of Western Australia will get the most significant falls. South Australia really misses out, it's very much a strong wind, which is the main risk for South Australia. And we'll see some light to locally moderate falls around Tasmania and Victoria, potentially slightly more than that around the north eastern ranges of Vic and the northern coastline of Tasmania.

And finally, just to talk about when this whole thing is coming to a close, well, that's the Sunday night. We see most of the wind and rain pulling out into the Tasman by Monday. Much more settled weather is setting in for most areas, but a little heads up, it doesn't look like it will last that long with the potential for some more wet weather heading in by the middle of next week. But if you want the latest on that one, you'll have to get your longer range forecast on the Bureau's website. And of course, you can always find the severe weather information on the website and app as well.

Thanks for watching. Have a great day!