00:02Heavy rain is hitting parts of Victoria this afternoon
00:04as a prolonged outback deluge continues in many states.
00:08ABC meteorologist Tom Saunders joins us now.
00:11Tom, good day, so let's start with central Australia.
00:14Take us through the latest observations and warnings.
00:17Joe, good afternoon.
00:18Well, these are the 24-hour totals to 9 o'clock this morning.
00:21It's been another day with rare heavy rain
00:24across the driest part of Australia in southwest Queensland
00:27after 85mm was recorded.
00:29But here's the one I've been looking at here.
00:31Wenathie, 121mm of rain.
00:34That's right on the SA New South Wales border.
00:36That's more than six months worth of rain that fell in 24 hours.
00:39Now, that station, it's only been there for 10 years,
00:41but it's easily a record for that station.
00:44And Jarvis, just east of Alice Springs, 94mm of rain.
00:47Now, here are the totals so far this month.
00:49Well, Jarvis has now had over 250mm.
00:52It's already the wettest month.
00:54That's any month, not just February, in 26 years.
00:56And we've had up to 150mm in the northeast corner of South Australia.
01:00And some totals well over 100 New South Wales and also southwest Queensland.
01:04And that heavy rain continues today.
01:06What we have is a tropical low that's near stationary east of Alice Springs.
01:10And you can see on the satellite the rotation of cloud spinning around that low.
01:14And further heavy rain continues today and will continue pretty much for the rest of this week.
01:19But for now, there is a severe weather warning in force for flash flooding,
01:22which includes southwest Queensland, northwest New South Wales, northeast SA,
01:26and also the adjacent parts of the NT.
01:28In that warning zone, potentially, we'll continue to see falls up to about 100mm in 24 hours, Joe.
01:35Wow. I wonder how Lake Eyre's looking or will look over the coming months.
01:38And to Victoria now. Heavy rain hit Melbourne earlier this afternoon.
01:42Well, Lake Eyre's very damp.
01:44And that's still from some heavy rain that fell last year.
01:46And I'm sure there will be another top up there over the next weeks and months.
01:49Now, Victoria, we had this band of severe storms sweeping across Melbourne earlier this afternoon.
01:54We had up to 21mm falling at the airport.
01:56The heaviest rain now has just shifted to the east of Melbourne.
01:59Now, here's the forecast rain over the next 24 hours.
02:02So, tonight, the heaviest rain will contract the eastern part of Victoria.
02:06Tomorrow, though, there will still be showers and thunderstorms
02:08with the chance of some heavy falls right near the New South Wales-Victorian border
02:12and also spreading to the southeast corner of New South Wales.
02:15So, there's the further risk there of some flash flooding.
02:17And what are the forecasts for the rest of the week?
02:20Well, I've already mentioned that tropical low that's well south of the tropics.
02:23There it is, just hovering near the NTSA border over the next few days.
02:27Heavy rain continuing, but also from Friday spreading back down through to southern parts of South Australia.
02:32And then later this week, we're probably going to see some more heavy rain around Victoria
02:35and western and southern parts of New South Wales.
02:38You can see, even Sunday, 10pm, we still have this band of heavy rain, though, extending right up into the
02:43interior.
02:44Now, here's the forecast rain over the next seven days.
02:47Another couple of hundred millimetres likely through parts of the outback,
02:51but well over 50 millimetres will spread right down to western Victoria
02:55and right down to the South Australian coast.
02:57Now, these are some areas that have been in drought for two years.
03:00So, some good news for farmers.
03:01We'll get some moisture in soil before we head into autumn,
03:05which is the critical time of year when they will need further rainfall for their winter crop.
03:09Because of all this forecast rain, there's a flood watch in place for a large part of the country.
03:13It includes parts of Victoria with that heavy rain falling today,
03:17but then with ongoing rain through the week, there's a flood watch in place, you can see,
03:21for a huge chunk of the interior.
03:22And for Queensland, well, there's already numerous flood warnings in place,
03:26and that's from heavy rain that's fallen over the past couple of months.
03:29Thanks, Tom.
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