It is a sharp contrast between the frost southeast, and the wet NSW coast.
We have a combination of: slow moving high pressure, an upper atmosphere cold pool of air, and an incredibly warmer than average Tasman Sea - working together to push rain into the coast with significant totals expected over the next few days.
Already there have been local falls over 100mm around the Newcastle area:
The rain is significant, but there are other impacts too.
- Marine Wind Warnings for Strong and Gale Force Winds.
- A Flood Watch (all the white areas on the map) for minor to moderate flooding beginning on Monday. There is the slight chance of major flooding. The Tuggerah Lake and Myall River already have a Minor Flood Warning issued (green areas - along with those rivers in the outback still in flood from the rain in Queensland more than a month ago).
- The large Severe Weather Warning (from Newcastle to Kempsey and well inland) for heavy rainfall leading to flash flooding, and damaging winds of 100km/h.
- A Coastal Hazard warning for Damaging Surf from Sydney to the southern Mid North Coast.
- Hazardous Surf
During the course of this week, the rain will continue to fall each day - slowly working its way northwards. The heaviest falls are from Monday to Wednesday, but some rain continues right through to Friday.
Looking for a dry day? That's likely to not be until Sunday.
