Wild storms bringing potentially heavy rains and damaging winds will continue to batter one Australian state, as another braces for a possible cyclone.
Isolated rain dumps of up to 50mm smattered Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, with winds of up to 80km lashing the city’s coastline and famed Sydney Harbour.
While the storms had started to clear on Wednesday morning, the Bureau of Meteorology warned more rain could be on the way for the state’s north and east.
“We’re seeing showers and storms this morning about The Central Coast, including Sydney,” BOM senior meteorologist Jonathan How said.
“They’ll become more widespread about the Eastern and North Eastern ranges this afternoon, and there is a chance of severe thunderstorms.“These storms could bring damaging winds, heavy rainfall and large hail.”
It comes as the mercury plummets across the state, after Greater Sydney sweltered through temperatures of up to 43.3C at Badgerys Creek in the city’s west.
At Sydney Airport, the temperature there reached a high of 37C by 3pm on Tuesday before falling rapidly to just 24C by 4pm and 20C four hours later.
The city was forecast to reach a high of just 26C on Wednesday, with a medium chance of showers most likely in the morning or early afternoon.
Light showers of up to just 1mm of rain were excepted to continue throughout the week, with the mercury staying below 30C into next week.
In the far north of Queensland, heavy rains continued to lash communities between Cairns and Ingham, with rainfall totals between 100-200mm.
The highest overnight was reported at Innisfail, which received 237mm of rain, while Cairns Racecourse also reported 183mm.
Mr How said heavy rain was expected to continue along the Cairns coast with a tropical low bringing cyclone warnings.
“We did see a tropical low form off the northeast Queensland coast, just off the coast of Cairns,” he said.
“At this stage, it is expected to continue gathering momentum and deepening over the Coral Sea over the next 24 to 48 hours.”
From Thursday, the low has a five per cent chance of forming into a tropical cyclone.
That will gradually increase to 10 per cent by Friday and later 25 per cent by Saturday.
“Regardless of whether this does form inter tropical cyclone, we are still expecting heavy rainfall along the Queensland coast, especially about the Cairns area,” he said.
“That could lead to riverine and also a bit of coastal flooding. We are also monitoring the potential for four other tropical lows within the Australian region.
“This includes one over The Gulf of Carpentaria, which does have a moderate chance of forming into a cyclone over the weekend, while the others are offshore.”
Elsewhere, Brisbane is forecast to be 32C and sunny on Wednesday, Melbourne could reach up to 21C and cloudy, Adelaide 26C and sunny, and Hobart 22C.
The nation’s capital could reach a high or 28C and partly cloudy, while Darwin might reach 33C with possible thunderstorms, and Perth might his 41C.
#storms #NSW #heatwave #Queensland #braces #cyclone
