More heavy rain, floods, heatwave, storms predicted across Australia as wild weather continues
ABC Weather
/ By Kate Doyle
Posted Fri 4 Mar 2022 at 7:34am Friday 4 Mar 2022 at 7:34am Fri 4 Mar 2022 at 7:34am
Heavy rainfall may trigger more flash flooding. (Supplied: Niels Kraaier)
abc.net.au/news/weekend-weather-forecast-cold-front-extreme-heatwave-vic-qld-/100881806
The weather just won't stop. A cold front is sweeping through, triggering more rain and storms, there's an extreme heatwave in north Queensland, and it's looking like another low for the east coast next week.
More rain is expected as a cold front sweeps across the south-east over the weekend
Heavy rainfall on wet catchments could lead to flash flooding
QLD tropical north is sweltering through extreme heatwave conditions
At present, a cold front is sweeping through into Victoria from South Australia.
"Ahead of this cold front, there's quite a bit of tropical moisture that's been introduced by that east coast low sitting over western New South Wales and much of Victoria." Senior meteorologist Jackson Browne said.
"The cold front will tap into that energy, and we're looking at the onset of some showers and storms across lots of Victoria."
As the cold front wedges through, it forces the moist warm air to rise, where it condenses and eventually falls as rain.
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Severe storms are on the forecast for south-western Victoria today with damaging wind and heavy rainfall.
By tomorrow, the front is expected to bring the storm threat to central and eastern Victoria, including Melbourne as well as much of southern New South Wales.
Falls are expected to be in the range of 15 to 25 millimetres, 25 to 50mm up the Great Divide. As usual, higher if you end up directly under a storm.
More rain is expected over the next week. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
With catchments already saturated, heavy rainfall triggered by the cold front could certainly trigger more flash flooding.
By Sunday, the front is expected to sweep up into eastern and far north-eastern parts of New South Wales.
Heavy rain and thunderstorms are forecast from Mackay in Queensland all the way through to Sydney, New South Wales.
"So, not welcome news for people that are flood affected in those areas," Mr Browne said.
Heavy rain is also expected in Gippsland on Sunday as south-easterly flows wrap around the low in the Tasman Sea, feeding in moisture to eastern Victoria and southern New South Wales.
A cold front is currently sweeping across the country but in its wake, another low is expected to form off the east coast. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
Ahead of the front, temperatures are currently four to six degrees above average, but behind the front, temperatures are expected to drop down to four to six degrees below average — with a marked drop in humidity as the cold fresh air blows in from the south.
Mr Browne said temperatures could even drop to below freezing on Sunday for some elevated parts.
Another low expected next week
Sadly, that isn't it for the east coast.
Another low is expected to form along somewhere on the east coast on Monday.
According to Mr Browne, at this stage, it is looking like it could develop near the Hunter coast, but this is still a long way out to be certain.
"Lows on the east coast are very hard to predict, and there's a lot of variability with where they might develop," he said.
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"They may develop hundreds of kilometres offshore. They might be quite close to the coast that might be up near Byron, they might be south coast.
"We know that there will be something that's going to spin up. It's just a matter of waiting to see where the penny lands."
East coast lows get their energy from differences in temperature, and this cold front sweeping through bringing cold air is creating the perfect environment.
"So we've introduced all of this cold air to the west, and then we've still got all the tropical moisture sitting to the east," Mr Browne said.
"So that boundary is something that lows can use to get their energy to spin up. That's essentially what's happening."
Meanwhile, the tropics swelter
The main headlines may have been coming out of the southern east coast over the last few days, but a different disaster is unfolding further north.
"It's atrocious up there," Mr Browne said.
Dangerously oppressive conditions are expected to linger on the tropical Queensland coast for the next week. (Supplied: Bureau of Meteorology)
"They've got dewpoints above 25 degrees, so that's something you'd find in Darwin or Indonesia."
Dewpoint is a measure of how much moisture the air is holding, and as Mr Brown said, 25 is incredibly high.
On top of that, minimum overnight temperatures are expected to be up around 27 degrees Celsius to 28 degrees Celsius in Townsville until midweek next week.
With maximums of up around 35 degrees Celsius at that level of humidity, it makes for incredibly uncomfortable conditions.
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"It is really bad. Biting down quite hard there," Mr Browne said
The tropics don't usually see big temperature anomalies, according to Mr Browne. Usually, it is just about two to four degrees.
But he said they were expecting to see temperatures peaking up to 15 degrees above average just inland of Townsville on Monday.
In extreme heatwave conditions, even young, healthy people can be susceptible.
The wild weather is far from letting up, so please continue to do your best to stay safe out there, folks.
Posted 4 Mar 2022 4 Mar 2022 Fri 4 Mar 2022 at 7:34am
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