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Severe thunderstorms are expected to lash southern and eastern NSW from Friday March 27, 2026, bringing the risk of heavy rain, flash flooding, damaging winds, and even large hailstones. This is particularly concerning for areas like Sydney, the Illawarra, and Wollongong during the evening rush hour, potentially causing significant disruptions. As the system moves offshore, a deepening low-pressure area will generate widespread damaging winds across eastern Tasmania, Victoria, and NSW. Wind gusts up to 110 km/h are possible, strong enough to cause trees to fall and damage property.
Transcript
00:00A weather event is brewing which will bring multiple weather hazards over multiple days
00:05to large parts of southeastern Australia from as early as this afternoon.
00:10I'm Angus here at the Bureau, it is Thursday and this is a severe weather update and let's
00:14start with our observations on the rain radar. What's been going on with the rain this morning?
00:19Well for southeastern Australia we can see this big band of wet weather sweeping
00:23across New South Wales and ACT associated with a cold front moving through the area.
00:28There's some further showers in behind as well affecting Tasmania and Victoria and some very cold air
00:34moving up from the south but I really want you to focus in on this area here where we're seeing
00:39some stronger radar echoes there in the yellows and the oranges showing us heavier rainfall and the
00:45development of thunderstorms and it is those storms which could go on to affect a number of areas over
00:51the next few hours. Here is our severe thunderstorm outlook for Thursday afternoon and really I want
00:56to draw your attention to the yellow and the red areas on the map which is where severe thunderstorms
01:01are possible including right through this area in southern and eastern New South Wales.
01:06These severe storms could cause areas of heavy rain and flash flooding, damaging winds and even
01:11large hailstones over the next few hours. This looks most likely in this red region here which
01:17includes parts of Sydney, the Illawarra and Wollongong and that could occur right on the evening rush hour
01:22between 4 and 7 pm on Thursday. This may cause delays and disruptions out and about as you go
01:29through your way this evening. More broadly speaking severe storms are also possible up through parts
01:33of the Hunter into the Tablelands and even out to the northwest slopes and plains throughout the second
01:38half of the day today. Our focus for this afternoon will be on those severe storms but the weather event
01:43which is driving those severe storms is going to continue into Friday and even though that initial band of wet
01:50weather
01:50which we're seeing on the radar at the moment will move offshore we're not done with what's going on
01:55because as that pulls away along that frontal line this low pressure area will develop and through Friday
02:01this low pressure area will deepen as it just hovers off the east coast of southern New South Wales.
02:07In particular take a look at this belt of strong winds which is going to wrap around the low pressure
02:12area
02:13coming up from the south. That will bring some really gusty conditions to parts of eastern Tasmania,
02:19eastern Victoria and into eastern and southern New South Wales and ACT and because of that we've gone
02:24ahead and issued some severe weather warnings for the southeast of the country. These are our warning
02:29areas focused on Victoria and New South Wales but we actually see some slightly differing details on either
02:35side of the state boundary. So we'll start off in Victoria where we've got the warning in place for damaging
02:40winds
02:41through eastern parts as well as the central ranges north of Melbourne. Wind gusts up to 100 kilometres
02:46an hour are expected from Friday morning through until Friday evening but we also could see some
02:51heavy rainfall through East Gippsland and that's included in the warning as well. Six hour rainfall
02:56totals of 60 to 80 millimetres through eastern Victoria could lead to areas of flash flooding or may cause
03:01the rivers to rise through East Gippsland. For the New South Wales side of the border broadly speaking we're
03:07just looking at damaging winds being our warning criteria. 100 to 110 kilometres an hour possible
03:13through a large area that's really really strong wind enough to bring down some trees and cause some
03:18damage to property. The strongest gusts up towards that 110 kilometre mark expected to be in the Illawarra
03:24and the south coast from Wollongong down to Eden. Let's move on because Friday into Saturday this low
03:31pressure area only very very slowly moves away from the country so we'll continue to see these very
03:37strong winds affecting eastern parts and gradually they will peel away from mainland Australia but
03:43importantly the strong winds will continue over the ocean and that will drive continued hazardous surf
03:50and large waves. So I've got the swell map here showing us the forecast swell height for southern
03:56and eastern Australia and that is really going to crank up on Friday as this low pressure area starts
04:02to intensify. So big big waves from eastern Tasmania up towards Sydney. We could see some waves in the
04:08six to eight metre range for deeper waters offshore maybe four to five metres for closer into the coastline
04:15here. That is large and powerful waves because of that we've issued this coastal hazard warning for
04:20eastern New South Wales. I'll just put the details on here. The warning is in place from the state border
04:25with
04:25Victoria through Marimbula all the way up to Seal Rocks which is between Newcastle and Foster. That
04:31does include the coastline of the Illawarra, the Sydney area and the Hunter and in that region we could
04:36see coastal erosion where powerful waves batter exposed southern facing coastlines eating away at beaches
04:43and causing damage and erosion along the shore. We could see some really large waves both inshore and over
04:49deeper waters as well making activities on and near the water pretty treacherous. The final
04:55thing I want to mention before I wrap up this video is the temperature because as this cold front moves
05:00through it is going to lead some very cold conditions over the southeast. Here we're looking
05:05at temperatures across the country just a little bit above the surface to give us an idea of what's
05:09going on and the blues into the greys into the pinks are where we expect to see the coldest temperatures.
05:15This big bubble of cold air is going to move northwards in the next few days and look how we
05:20see cold
05:20conditions through New South Wales, Victoria, ACT, Tasmania, South Australia even into southern
05:26Queensland. Here's a look at Friday's maximum temperatures. This is going to be a stark reminder
05:30that winter is ahead of us and summer is behind us. These temperatures are looking pretty chilly
05:36including maximums of 15 for Hobart, 15 for Canberra and 16 for Melbourne. The coldest temps of the year so
05:41far and some places will be pushing records for the coldest temperatures ever recorded in the month of
05:47March. So be it cold temperatures, damaging winds, large waves or severe thunderstorms, many people
05:53will be impacted by this weather event between today and Saturday. So make sure to stay up with
05:57the latest including all those weather warnings on the Bureau's website and the BOM Weather app.
06:02Thanks so much for watching.
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