Rain & possible flooding through central & western Australia

Australian Community Media

Heavy rain and potential flooding in central and western Australia is expected to continue. Video by the Bureau of Meteorology.

Transcript

00:00Heavy rain and potential flooding continue across central parts of the continent today,

00:04with the focus for rainfall shifting towards the east coast from Thursday.

00:09Now today's satellite imagery shows a lot of cloud sitting over western and central parts

00:14of the continent, associated with this rain event that's already been unfolding over the

00:18past couple of days. Today we're going to see further wet weather through much of inland

00:24Western Australia, the Northern Territory and South Australia. Generally showers but

00:29tending to rain areas through parts of the Northern Territory. Thunderstorms are also

00:34going to play a part. Today's thunderstorm forecast shows these green areas of possible

00:40thunderstorms across much of inland Western Australia, the Northern Territory and northern

00:45parts of South Australia too. In these areas storms are possible today. We do have severe

00:52storms possible today as well. This yellow area you see here across southwestern parts of the

00:57Northern Territory and the northern inland of Western Australia. Now in that yellow area we

01:02could see, or we're more likely to see rather, heavy falls which could lead to flash flooding.

01:08That is really the hotspot area for today and if we look at today's rainfall totals that we're

01:13expecting it tells the same story. We've got fairly patchy falls through inland Western

01:18Australia, South Australia and parts of the Northern Territory but in that area of severe

01:24storms we might see more widespread 20 to 50 millimetres but where storms move overhead

01:29those rainfall totals may reach as much as 70 or 80 millimetres. In addition to the thunderstorm

01:36risk today we do also have that continued risk of flooding. Our flood watches cover the Tanami

01:41and Western Desert catchments as well as the Sturt Creek all straddling the border between the

01:46Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. Now in those flood watch areas we're most likely

01:51to see the impacts from the rainfall. That includes water moving over the roads making

01:56them muddy or impassable potentially leading to lengthy detours. We may also see the rivers and

02:01creeks responding to that rainfall with possible inundation of low-lying areas near those waterways.

02:08So how will this situation play out after today? Looking at tomorrow we're going to start seeing

02:14that rain push towards southeastern Australia. A cold front will start to approach the southeast

02:19too and that will help to drag the moisture eastwards. Tomorrow's rainfall totals are generally

02:24going to be on the low to moderate side but thunderstorms may push up the totals in some

02:29isolated areas through the east here. However the story becomes a little bit more

02:35interesting as we go into Thursday. We're going to see rainfall pushing up the east coast of New

02:41South Wales tapping into this moisture coming in from the north leading to potentially moderate

02:46to heavy falls about parts of the central east coast of New South Wales. Now that includes pretty

02:51much anywhere from the Illawarra northwards including the Greater Sydney area and the

02:56Greater Hunter. As we go towards the end of Thursday into early Friday we're going to see

03:01low pressure deepening across northeast New South Wales and southeast Queensland

03:05possibly leading to further enhanced rainfall at the end of the week going into the early

03:10part of the weekend. Now this is just one possible forecast option. We may see this low pressure

03:16system developing slightly differently in a slightly different location or slightly faster

03:21or slower and that will impact the outcome of rainfall for these eastern parts of New South

03:26Wales. However one way or the other we are expecting a wet end to the week for eastern New

03:32South Wales and southeastern Queensland. You can find all of the forecast updates over the next

03:37couple of days via the Bureau's website or the BOM social media. Stay on top of this

03:42situation and we'll catch you in the next update.

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