The heavy rain that drenched much of Queensland and the Northern Territory over the past week will move south, but the capitals will avoid a long wet Easter weekend.
Rain will form a band across the country’s red center on Saturday and move eastwards, but rain is not likely over Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne until Tuesday.
Adelaide and Perth will also avoid rain, although Darwin is likely to be wet.
“Most of the country will have a near-perfect weekend, the only people who might need an umbrella are those in the NT,” Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Dean Narramore said.
“Otherwise, it will be a warm and sunny weekend.”
Rain is on its way to the east coast, but shouldn’t arrive until after the Easter long weekend, so picnics and trips to the beach are possible.
A map of accumulated rainfall for the 24 hours leading up to Tuesday, April 2, predicts that a band of rain forming over the center of the country will have moved east over Victoria and New South Wales.
New south Wales
The western part of the state could see some showers early into the Easter long weekend, while rain could reach the coast on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.
Good Friday will be a nice balmy 25C in Sydney and the rest of the weekend, including Monday, will follow suit reaching highs of 27C and 28C.
queensland
While not in the band of heavy rain that will form over the center of the country, the Queensland coast could see some lighter rain.
Brisbane will reach highs of 27C and 28C with scattered showers likely over the weekend.
Victory
Melbourne will see a cooler Easter weekend with highs around 20 degrees.
The rain band should reach eastern Victoria on Monday and Melbourne on Tuesday, bringing rainfall totals of up to 30mm.
South Australia
South Africa is in for a nice, sunny start to the weekend further south around Adelaide, with the band of rain only reaching the northern half of the state.
However, there could be heavy clouds and rain on Monday, which would reduce the temperature from a maximum of around 30C to 24C.
Tasmania
Hobart will experience a windy weekend with southeasterly winds of up to 20km/h crossing the ocean.
It will be cloudy with highs in the 20s, but most of the state except the Northeast will avoid rain.
Northern Territory
The only state that will see a wet Easter is the NT, where Darwin will experience wet days with temperatures around 30 degrees and showers followed by possible afternoon thunderstorms each day.
The southern half of the NT will see heavy rain early in the weekend with risk of flash flooding.
Western Australia
WA will be dry across most of the state over the long weekend.
Perth will have warm temperatures hovering around 28C, but cloud cover should provide UV protection.
Those looking to hit the beach should be fine over the Easter holidays as most of the south of the country will avoid the rain (pictured, Bondi).
There may be some light rain on the Queensland coast (pictured, Gold Coast), but nothing like the rain of the last week.
Weatherzone’s Ashleigh Lange said the reason for the rain band is twofold.
During the week ending Wednesday 27 March, Rabbit Flat in the NT recorded 277mm, contributing to its wettest March on record.
Moisture from former Tropical Cyclone Megan and a trough of low pressure combined to cause an extremely wet week with high rainfall totals across the Territory.
Tropical moisture should join with a cold front that will sweep across southeastern Australia at the end of the Easter long weekend, dragging the eastward band of rain to west and central Vic on Monday.
In the Northern Territory, remote communities are calling on the government to do better after a severe weather event hit the northeast of the Northern Territory on March 17, causing strong winds and rain and isolating townships.
An evacuation of the remote community of Borroloola was canceled on March 18 after Australian Defense Force aircraft were unable to land as the eye of the cyclone approached.
Northern Land Council chairman Matthew Ryan said the government’s response was inadequate and put residents at risk.
“Imagine being stranded there, surrounded by rising water, having no clear direction and seeing planes circling but then just leaving,” Ryan said in a statement.
“Emergency response support from the federal and NT governments has been appalling…lessons are not being learned and as a result our communities continue to suffer.”
The land council said staff met with federal government officials on March 12, warning them about ongoing telecommunications problems and black holes that accompany severe weather events in remote areas.
Problems were noted, although when Cyclone Megan hit the following week the council said communication was poor.
Several official emergency notices posted on Facebook diverted people seeking information to up to eight different numbers or websites, the council said.