00:00We've got very humid air mass right across south-eastern Australia.
00:05We have seen a bit of minor relief through Adelaide and Melbourne, but just inland of
00:08those areas, we're seeing humidity levels similar to what we'd see in northern Queensland
00:13right across inland south-east Australia.
00:15That's what's driving all these warm, humid, cloudy conditions and these severe thunderstorms.
00:20Okay, so what's going to happen with these thunderstorms tonight and over the next couple
00:24of days?
00:25Yes, we've got rain and thunderstorms right across eastern South Australia, much of Victoria
00:29and New South Wales, and many of these storms are severe through parts of western, central
00:34and eastern New South Wales and into north-eastern parts of Victoria, where they're driving heavy
00:40rainfall and damaging winds.
00:41We've seen winds gusts in excess of 90 kilometres an hour at Bourke, and we're seeing falls
00:46of 30 to 40 millimetres in about half an hour to an hour under some of these storms as well.
00:50So if you're directly underneath them, they're likely to lead to flash flooding and maybe
00:54some localised damaging winds.
00:55So how heavy could that rain be, how much rain could fall over a couple of hours with
01:01some of these storms?
01:02Yes, definitely, if you're underneath one of these storms, we're likely to see very
01:06quick fire, 20 to 40 millimetres.
01:09And if you're under a couple of these storms, particularly in north-east New South Wales
01:12or south-east Queensland, we could see isolated totals of 50 to 80 millimetres.
01:16And these storms are then going to congeal into an area of rain tonight through north-east
01:20New South Wales and south-east Queensland.
01:23And because of that, a severe weather warning is current for heavy rainfall and damaging
01:26winds for our elevated areas in the Snowies and the Victorian Alpine areas, where we could
01:31see falls of 50 to 80 millimetres there, with isolated falls in excess of 100 possible.
01:36It feels like there's been a heap of warnings for storms over the last month or so.
01:42Is this usual for this time of year, or is it the case that there's actually been a bit
01:47more activity than usual?
01:49Yes, November into pretty much late October through Christmas is our peak storm season
01:54around the country.
01:55So it generally is pretty active, but with the record sea surface temperatures we're
01:59seeing around large parts of the country, that's providing a lot more moisture for these
02:03weather systems.
02:04So that's why we're seeing such extensive areas of thunderstorm activity over multiple
02:08days as well, as we haven't had a cold front to kind of clear out all this moisture across
02:13the country.
02:14And there'll be heatwave conditions for some places too over the coming days?
02:18Yeah, that's right.
02:19We have low to severe heatwave conditions through much of WA, central and northern South
02:24Australia, and that'll extend into northern New South Wales and southern Queensland in
02:28the coming days.
02:29And then as we move into the weekend and early next week, that heat will kind of contract
02:33into northern Australia and then start building across western and central parts of WA, and
02:39then some of that heat could get dragged to the eastern states by this time next week.
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