Australians living in the southern and eastern parts of the country spend a rainy weekend with severe thunderstorms wreaking havoc.
The “dangerously unstable” atmosphere can cause superstorms, torrential rains, giant hail and even tornadoes as severe weather makes its way across the country.
The heaviest storm activity will hang over southern Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, Weatherzone’s Ben Domencino said.
“All components will be in place for serious thunderstorms in part of southern and eastern Australia this weekend,” he said.
The miserable weather conditions are due to the cold air sweeping across South Australia, along with a gale of strong winds.
“This cold air aloft will greatly increase atmospheric instability, while strong upper-level winds will enhance wind shear and increase the risk of supercells and tornadoes,” the meteorologist said.
Weather maps show how the system will move across the east of the country, dumping most of the rain on Sunday across inland areas of Victoria, New South Wales and Quindorado (above)
Australia’s eastern states will be hit by heavy storms over the weekend as meteorologists say weather conditions are ideal for wild weather (above, lightning strikes behind the Sydney Harbor Bridge)
Flood-affected communities won’t feel any delay, as the Met Office warns that the deluge could return some restored waterways to moderate and major flood levels (above, a Sydney resident holds an umbrella)
A heavy band of rain will stretch across the country and move east across the Top End, South Australia, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania over the weekend – with the worst weather on Sunday.
Inland NSW and Queensland will bear most of the flood, instead The additional threat from “super hives” has meteorologists worried.
“While regular thunderstorms usually live for tens of minutes, supercells can last for hours,” Domesino said.
Their rotation also allows the supercells to move in a different direction than the other surrounding storm cells, making them very difficult to predict in advance. Some giant cells can also produce tornadoes.
Wild weather conditions could also cause flash flooding around parts of Queensland, Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania and South Australia this week.
There are several major active flood warnings across New South Wales and Victoria from Friday night.
The BoM Bank also warned that temperatures would be “significantly lower” than the November average, with Adelaide only reaching a high of 18C on Monday.
The sun stream (above) will wind down in Sydney over the weekend as rain will cover Harbor City, Adelaide and Melbourne – however, Brisbane is set to avoid any downpours
Major flooding continues to occur in inland New South Wales, while minor flooding continues to occur in communities in southern Queensland and Victoria.
Significant flood warnings are in place for the Barwon and Darling Rivers, the Macquarie River, the Lachlan River, the Murrumbidgee River, the Bogan River, the Namui River, the Naran River and the Colgoa River in New South Wales.
Major flood warnings have also been issued for communities along the Murray River.
The bureau predicted that the rainfall would cause the water level to rise in rivers and streams restored to moderate and significant levels of flooding.
A weekend of rain could put restored waterways under stress again as many parts of Victoria recover from the October flood (above, Echuca on the Murray in October)
“A small trough is approaching NSW from the west and will move into the state during Friday and Saturday, resulting in a return to unstable conditions,” an alert from the Western NSW office read.
A cold front is then expected to combine with this trough during Sunday and Monday to generate areas of enhanced rain and thunderstorms across parts of the state.
Severe thunderstorms are likely, with strong winds, hail and flash torrents.
The office also issued an alert for parts of Victoria.
For Sunday, widespread totals are expected to be 10-20mm, with 20-50mm for the central and eastern bands, possibly in the southwest and Gippsland. Widespread totals of 40-70mm are expected in the northeast ranges, with isolated 80-100mm totals with thunderstorms.
Weatherzone has created a forecasted rainfall chart for Australia in the seven days through Monday
Queensland faces ‘destructive’ winds and thunderstorms in the north.
Most of the wild weather is expected to descend in the southern and western regions of the state over the weekend.
Forecasters expected parts of western Queensland to receive 40mm of rain on Sunday alone.
However, Brisbane is expected to remain mostly sunny over the weekend.
Western Australia will also escape the rain with Perth experiencing a dry and sunny week with temperatures soaring into the high 20s.
