Weather Update: Sunny Skies, Cool South

And there are some large empty areas of our map, and in meteorological terms, that means broad regions with clear skies and sunshine around Australia for Friday, but there are some weather systems around the periphery to keep a watch of. In the north, we've got some remaining moisture from ex-Tropical Cyclone Maila continuing to fuel thunderstorms in parts of the Northern Territory, while for the south-east, we've got this strong cold, wintry wind flow hitting parts of Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. And in the south-west we have another cold front which is going to be heading towards Perth right at the end of the day on Friday.

Let's fly around the states and most of Queensland will have clear bright sunny skies and warm temperatures, including Brisbane, tracking for a high of 31 °C without any strong winds. There will be some rain in the west, with showers and storms from Longreach out toward Mount Isa, particularly getting going through the afternoon and into the evening, and a few scattered showers across the Cape York Peninsula as well.

Down through New South Wales, northern and western parts of the state will have really bright, sunny and warm conditions, with temperatures about 5 °C above average. When it comes to rainfall, the action is all on the east coast from about Newcastle down towards the Victorian border, and for this stretch, including Sydney and Wollongong, the morning will actually be quite bright, sunny and warm. In the afternoon we'll see a cold wind change slide northwards so that will do a few things, with temperatures dropping, the wind picking up during the afternoon and the arrival of some showers and thunderstorms as that wind does change as well. There's even the possibility of some severe thunderstorms as we head late afternoon into the evening time period for Sydney and Wollongong, that could bring some wind or hail damage.

To Victoria, quite a cool day across the state here, and if you scan around all the temperatures here, they are pretty much all in the teens, with the exception of Mildura tracking up towards 21 °C. There'll be a fairly firm westerly wind blowing across Victoria tomorrow and there will be some showers as well, with showers able to hit anyone along the south coast from Warrnambool and Portland, all the way out to the east of Gippsland. Possible showers around Melbourne and pushing up towards the Eastern Ranges as well, and while that's a pretty large area, no one is expecting to get heavy falls, so it will just be low rainfall totals, leading into a really windy day across Tasmania on Friday.

In fact, we've already got Damaging Wind Warnings in place for these gusts as they could be pushing 90 or 100 km an hour, including in the south-east around the Hobart area, as well as parts of central, eastern and north-eastern Tasmania, where those winds could really be blowing through strongly. Showers will be persistent in the west and about the mountains, with some people getting between 10 mm and 30 mm, while Hobart could get a light shower or two, but perhaps just 1 mm or 2 mm total.

Southern parts of South Australia will have quite a cloudy day on Friday, or at least passing cloud cover, and that does include in and around Adelaide. Keep an eye on the temperatures, as we see low 20s from Whyalla grading towards the high teens down in Mount Gambier, and this whole region is on the cool side of average. Further north and further west, it is much warmer and sunnier, and there won't be much rain across South Australia on Friday, but a couple of light showers possible from Murray Bridge down to the very far south.

The morning, and actually most of the afternoon will be quite bright for southern parts of WA, with some sunshine and pleasant temperatures, and increasing cloud coverage moving overhead through the day. But it's not until the evening when we're likely to see the arrival of some rainfall as this cold front finally reaches the far west coast of the state towards the last few hours of the day, and then we'll finish off with Perth, Margaret River, the south-western corner, all seeing some rain on Friday night, possibly after 9 pm, and heading into the start of the weekend. Further north from Geraldton up to the Pilbara it will remain bright, sunny and clear, and the wet season is not done yet.

There will be scattered showers and storms right across the top end, all the way from Arnhem Land across to Darwin, and in fact, the wet weather could dip down into the Carpentaria and Barkly regions and towards central parts of the territory. That's quite a stark contrast to what's going on in northern WA, where it's bright, sunny and dry through the Kimberley and Pilbara, and it is very dry through Australia's red centre as well.

That's what I've got for you for today. I will be back to this time tomorrow with the Weekend Update, but until then, more weather info can be found on the BOM website or the BOM Weather app. And thank you so much for watching.