Severe thunderstorm risk for northern and eastern Australia including Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra | Australia weather
Much of northern and eastern Australia is at risk of severe storms on Saturday afternoon and evening, with millions of people potentially in the firing line.
“This is another outbreak of severe thunderstorms for the eastern parts of the country. It could be an active storm,” Bureau of Meteorology senior meteorologist Angus Hines said on Saturday.
The warning comes after storms ripped through south-east Queensland on Friday; ABC reported that more than 11,000 homes lost power following afternoon and evening storms.
About 2,000 Energex customers in the area were still without power Saturday morning.
Hines said the risk of storms was “widespread” and extended from the tropical north and Western Australia to central and eastern parts of the country, including Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and eastern Victoria.
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What triggers storms, Hines said, is that high levels of moisture in the atmosphere drifting downward from the tropics interact with pressure differences in the air, creating upward movement. This prepares the atmosphere for storms, he said.
Storms will bring the risk of strong winds and heavy rainfall, which may cause trees and power lines to fall.
“It’s not an unusual situation for the north of the country [to see storms at this time of year] but millions of Australians on the east coast may see disruption today,” Hines said.
Residents should be wary of storm warnings covering specific areas that will likely be issued Saturday afternoon, he said.
The risk of bushfires was also assessed as extreme on Saturday on the western slopes and plains of New South Wales, where hot and windy conditions and lightning strikes could cause bushfires.
A total fire ban is in place in the northern Riverina and lower mid-western plains. The fire risk is expected to decrease on Sunday and Monday, but would remain high across much of the stateAccording to the NSW Rural Fire Service.
Stormy conditions are expected to ease in southern parts of the country on Sunday, but northern NSW and south-east Queensland remain a risk of storms on Sunday.
“South-east Queensland is one spot that could be in the firing line again on Sunday, and it will be a mostly cloudy and windy day in Queensland and far northern NSW, with a background risk of storms,” Hines said.
The bureau is also monitoring a low pressure system in the Timor Sea north of the Kimberley, northwestern Western Australia.
The system had a moderate chance of developing into a tropical cyclone as it moved towards the NT by Thursday and Friday next week.
