Arabic version: نظام عواصف كبير يطلق تحذيرات في شرق أستراليا

According to The Guardian, large parts of eastern Australia were placed on alert for severe thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon, with further storms and flood risks expected on Monday. The Bureau of Meteorology issued a severe thunderstorm warning for Sydney, greater Wollongong and parts of the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury, Gosford, Wyong, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee areas.

The Bureau said a broad line of storms had already crossed western New South Wales. Severe thunderstorms capable of producing hail, damaging winds, flash flooding and power outages were forecast across southern Queensland, western NSW, the ACT and eastern Victoria. Wind gusts reaching 100km/h were recorded in central-west NSW around midday on Sunday.

Bureau meteorologist David Crock described the weather event as an unusually large, multi-state storm system. He said high pressure over the Tasman Sea had blocked weather fronts for 10 days, contributing to storms and rain in southern Queensland. A cooler-air front moving east was drawing tropical moisture from the north and bringing storm conditions to central NSW and Canberra.

Eight flood warnings remained in place across southern Queensland after days of torrential rain. The Mary River downstream of Gympie was forecast to reach major flood levels at Tiaro on Sunday evening and into Monday. Crock said southern Queensland had experienced weather “whiplash” after a very dry September, while areas around the Sunshine Coast received between 200mm and 400mm of rain in the past week.

Storm activity was expected to continue into Monday in northern NSW and southern Queensland before the cold front moved through. Elsewhere, coastal showers were forecast for Victoria and Tasmania, where snow was falling above 800m. The Bureau’s November-to-January outlook indicates above-average rainfall is likely across most of Australia, except the far north and much of Tasmania.