AFTER months of barely any rain falling from the sky, NSW and south-eastern Queensland are finally experiencing some reasonable falls across the east.
Onshore winds are feeding moisture to a low pressure trough sitting off the coast of northern NSW.
On Monday, Ballina’s 60 millimetres of rainfall was a 10-month high. Compared to other Septembers, this was the wettest September day in 10 years and close to its monthly average rainfall in just one day.
It’s been the heaviest rain in two to three months for parts of the Hunter and Illawarra with 2mm to 15mm falling on Monday.
Drought-stricken Murrurundi, in the Upper Hunter, gained 18mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am Monday, this is its heaviest daily rainfall in four months.
Further showers and storms will continue over the region, but these will contract towards the coasts as the coastal trough weakens. Another cold front and trough will hit NSW later this week from the west.
Showers and storms are likely to continue over north-eastern NSW and south-eastern Qld, but there could be some good falls for the western slopes and plains, all the way down to the Victorian border with some areas picking 10mm to 20mm of rainfall by Saturday.
Ahead of this system, gusty northerly winds are likely to raise dust across western NSW, far eastern South Australia and Queensland’s south west.
These northerly winds will also bring warmer temperatures.
During the past few weeks there has been intense frontal activity across the south east, unusual for this time of the year for central and nothern NSW as well as Qld.
These brought frostier than normal nights to northern NSW and southern Qld, but as they loose intensity warmer than average temperatures will return next week.
