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Millions of Australians could be without power this week as a heatwave grips the country, amid warnings that the wet and wild weather will devastate “every state and territory”.
A total of 347 sites suffered outages during an unplanned outage in Sydney’s CBD at 3pm on Tuesday, according to an update from Ausgrid.
The power supply is expected to be restored at 5:30 p.m.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns acknowledged on Monday that the power grid could be under pressure.
“We will be as quick as possible with updates to the community about potential supply disruptions,” Mr Minns said.
Authorities have also issued blackout warnings for Queensland this week, with the highest risk of blackouts between 3.30pm and 7.30pm.
It comes as a heatwave warning remains in place for areas of New South Wales on Tuesday, including a severe warning for the Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan, Illawarra, South Coast and Southern Tablelands districts.
On Tuesday, Sydney’s CBD was expected to hit 31C, Adelaide was expected to swelter in 33C heat, while Perth is expected to hit 35C on Friday.
Tuesday afternoon’s unplanned outages occurred
A heatwave warning remains in place for areas of New South Wales on Tuesday and is expected to worsen on Wednesday before easing later in the week (pictured, Bondi Beach on Sunday).
NSW residents in Batemans Bay, Bowral, Camden, Liverpool, Penrith, Campbelltown, Hornsby, Nowra, Parramatta and Richmond will be sweating it out on Wednesday as temperatures hit 40C on Wednesday.
These unusually hot days are between 6°C and 10°C higher than the typical seasonal average.
The mercury could potentially top 40C in parts of Sydney as the heatwave continues along the New South Wales coast this week.
Forecasters also expect heavy rain and the possibility of severe thunderstorms across all states and territories for the remainder of the week.
Bureau of Meteorology forecaster Jonathan How said warm ocean waters around Australia were causing unsettled conditions, with sea temperatures reaching 32C off the northern coast of Western Australia.
“As sea surface temperatures rise, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere, or humidity, increases and this is fuel for storms,” Mr How said.
‘By Wednesday, we could see accumulated rainfall in excess of 50mm in parts of Victoria and the Northern Territory.
“From Thursday and Friday onwards, that’s when we start to see rainfall totals increase across New South Wales and southern Queensland.”
Meteorologist Jonathan How (pictured) warned that heavy rain and the possibility of severe thunderstorms were expected in all states and territories.
Sydney
Tuesday: Sunny. Chance of storm. Winds up to 30 km/h. Maximum 31C.
Wednesday: Mostly sunny. Little chance of rain. Winds up to 25 km/h. Minimum 21°C Maximum 33°C.
Thursday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Chance of storm. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 22°C Maximum 30°C.
Friday: Showers, up to 20mm of rain. Chance of storm. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 20°C Maximum 25°C.
Melbourne
Tuesday: Medium chance of showers, up to 5 mm of rain. Chance of storm. Maximum 25C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 9mm of rain. Chance of storm. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 21°C Maximum 28°C.
Thursday: Little chance of showers. Winds up to 25 km/h. Minimum 16°C Maximum 24°C.
Friday: Average chance of showers. Chance of storm. Winds up to 25 km/h. Minimum 16°C Maximum 26°C.
brisbane
Tuesday: Little chance of showers. Winds up to 20 km/h. Maximum 29C.
Wednesday: Average chance of showers. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 21°C Maximum 29°C.
Thursday: Average chance of showers. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 23°C Maximum 30°C.
Friday: Average chance of showers. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 23°C Maximum 29°C.
The severe storms are forecast to bring damaging winds, large hail and heavy rain, with a risk of flooding in some parts of the country (pictured, storms forecast across Australia).
Canberra
Tuesday: Average chance of showers. Chance of storm. Winds up to 30 km/h. Maximum 31C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Chance of storm. Winds up to 30 km/h. Minimum 17°C Maximum 28°C.
Thursday: Average chance of showers. Chance of storm. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 15°C Maximum 29°C.
Friday: Showers, up to 20 mm of rain. Chance of storm. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 14°C Maximum 27°C.
hobart
Tuesday: Little chance of showers. Winds up to 20 km/h. Maximum 24C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 20mm of rain. Chance of storm. Winds up to 25 km/h. Minimum 15°C Maximum 24°C.
Thursday: Showers. up to 15 mm of rain. Winds up to 30 km/h. Minimum 12°C Maximum 17°C.
Friday: Little chance of showers. Winds up to 20 km/h. Min. 11°C Max. 18°C.
Adelaide
Tuesday: Showers. Chance of storm. Winds up to 25 km/h. Maximum 33C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 5mm of rain. Chance of storm. Winds up to 30 km/h. Minimum 15°C Maximum 23°C.
Thursday: Little chance of showers. Winds up to 25 km/h. Minimum 13°C Maximum 22°C.
Friday: Little chance of rain. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 13°C Maximum 25°C.
How added that much of the country could meet and even exceed November’s monthly rainfall average by Friday night (pictured, CBD workers in Brisbane dodging the rain)
Perth
Tuesday: Sunny. Winds up to 40 km/h. Maximum 25C.
Wednesday: Sunny. Winds up to 30 km/h. Minimum 13°C Maximum 28°C.
Thursday: Sunny. Winds up to 30 km/h. Minimum 16°C Maximum 32°C.
Friday: Little chance of showers. Chance of storm. Winds up to 30km Min 21C Max 35C.
Darwin
Tuesday: Showers. Chance of storm. Maximum 32C.
Wednesday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Chance of storm. Minimum 25°C Maximum 32°C.
Thursday: Showers, up to 10mm of rain. Winds up to 20 km/h. Minimum 26°C Maximum 33°C.
Friday: Showers, up to 15mm of rain. Chance of storm. Minimum 26°C Maximum 33°C.