There are no active warnings for this location.
Weather Maps
Daily Forecast
Showers, rain and some storms are scattered across eastern NSW with moist winds, with lighter showers persisting elsewhere along the eastern seaboard. A weakening low is bringing cool winds, showers and storms to WA's south. Dry elsewhere with high pressure ridges.
Latest Warnings
AUS
Latest News
Climate Updates
Weather in Business
Latest News
Today, 4:40AM UTC
Intense Rainfall: Over 100mm in just 3 days over NSW
The advance of a trough across the north and center of the state spread clouds across the state and, together with humid onshore winds, intensified instability in eastern NSW, leading to intense rainfall. Image: Satellite and radar images on Sunday 5th at 11:20am AEST. Sydney Airport recorded 51.2mm in just 3 days and since the beginning of the month, it has already made (96.2mm) slightly above the May average (95.9mm). Other locations also experienced significant rainfall in the last 3 days: Jervis Bay Airfield: 177.2mm Kiama: 109.4mm Ulladulla: 105.4mm. The rain is not over yet. Over the next 24 hours, more water is expected to fall, especially in the eastern part of the state, including the Sydney area. The map below indicates areas in red where an accumulation of 60-80mm of rain is expected over the southeast until 10 am on Monday. Image: 24hour rainfall to 10am AEST on Monday 6th according with ECMWF. Southeasterly winds will continue to bring rain throughout the week, although not as intense or consistent as in recent days. By the end of the week, another trough is expected to cross the state, possibly spreading more significant rain across the north and east of NSW. Follow the Weatherzone homepage for more updates.
04 May 2024, 4:36AM UTC
Riverina's first rain in a month frustrates some, drenches others
Rain and thunderstorms have been spreading across New South Wales, bringing the first rain in a month and evening drenching some areas, but it has been frustratingly too little in the south, including Riverina's south. The Riverina was a district of stark contrast, with water across roads in the north and little more than dusty drops on windscreens further south. Southern towns closer to the Murrumbidgee and Murray Rivers, including Barham, Deniliquin, Mathoura and Tocumwal, all received less than half a millimetre, not even enough to clean your car windscreen. Even in parts of the district's north, there has only been a few millimetres worth. Griffith has had less than five millimetres so far and their chances of further rain are diminishing by the hour. Only about 100 km to the north, Hillston accumulated about 70mm, more than double its monthly average and its heaviest rainfall in 12 years. Image: Recorded rainfall in millimetres in the 24 hours to about 9am Saturday 4 May 2024 and satellite and radar images at the time. The pool of cold air helping deliver this rain is continuing to move east, taking rain with it and causing the Riverina to gradually dry out. The district is likely to be rain-free but sunrise tomorrow. The next best chance of rain for the area is in about a week but the system bringing this rain will favour the north again. Moisture should flow from the north and east to feed another pool of cold air and low pressure trough. Keep up to date with the outlook by checking https://www.weatherzone.com.au/nsw and https://www.weatherzone.com.au/models/charts Despite a fair amount of uncertainty regarding how much will fall, those living in the north have some reason to be optimistic about the prospects of follow-up rain despite the increased chance of potholes. Those in the south will need to exercise more patience.
04 May 2024, 1:55AM UTC
Spooky spectre sighting west of Sydney
Unlike this weekend, last weekend was calm with light winds and clear skies across NSW, so I knew there would be fog in the valleys near Sydney on the Sunday morning. So I went to the Burragorang Valley to see it full of fog like I wrote about last year River of cloud just west of Sydney. Image: Thick fog covering the Burragorang Valley, west of Sydney. This time I arrived earlier than last time and there was even thicker fog so that I could barely see the other side of the valley. And there was something strange below me as I looked down. A very large shadow with a rainbow-like halo! Image: Mountain spectre and glory projected onto the fog below. The large shadow is called a mountain spectre because it has been commonly seen in mountainous areas in Europe, and the halo is also known as a glory. The phenomenon was caused by the sunlight passing from behind me and interacting with the water droplets of the mist between me and the sun. Image: Sunlight passing through mist behind me. Here is what the scene looked like from the Himawari-9 satellite. Many areas of fog can be seen branching out across the different valleys. The Burragorang Valley is to the west of Camden. Image: Himawari-9 visible satellite image at 8am Sunday 28th April And here is the synoptic chart from that morning, showing the high pressure ridge that led to light winds, clear skies, and cool overnight temperatures. These are the conditions that are favourable for the formation of fog. Image: BOM MSLP analysis at 10am Sunday 28th April
Weather in Business
23 Apr 2024, 12:07AM UTC
Wind returning to southeastern Australia
After a prolonged period of light winds, a surge of powerful winds and cool air will push through southeastern Australia during the next 48 hours. As we wrote about last week the National Electricity Market (NEM) saw very low wind power generation during the seven days leading up to Thursday, April 18, with the daily wind generation having been under 41 GWh/day for this period. Wind power has improved slightly during the past week, with wind power increasing for a few days over last weekend. The chart below shows that the winds across the NEM have already increased in response to a cold front approaching SA and Vic on Tuesday. The increase in wind power is associated with a cold front sweeping across southeastern Australia, after a stubborn high-pressure system forced many cold fronts south for over a week. The map below shows the cold front marching across the Bight, approaching SA on Tuesday morning. You can also see a broad area of speckled cloud in the Bight, which is a tell-tale sign that a large mass of cold polar air has broken away from the Antarctic region and is venturing into the relatively warm mid-latitudes. Image: Himawari-9 satellite image at 9:30am AEST on Tuesday, April 23. Northwesterly winds will continue to strengthen ahead of the cold front on Tuesday in SA and Vic before a strong southwesterly change hits Adelaide on Tuesday afternoon and Melbourne in the evening. The images below show the wind gust forecast for Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon. Image: Instantaneous wind gust forecast at 1pm AEST on Tuesday (top) (bottom)and Wednesday, April 23 and 24, according to ECMWF While most of this wind should hit the wind power ‘sweet spot’, cut outs could occur at southeastern Vic and southern NSW wind farms late Tuesday into Wednesday. Generally, cut outs occur when wind speeds exceed 90km/h (25 m/s), which is when the wind turbines are turned off to prevent damage. In the image above you can see the front and associated southerly change moving up the NSW coast on Wednesday, hitting Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. Winds will then become light later this week as another high-pressure system moves into the Bight. Cool change coming Ahead of this change, much of southeastern Australia has experienced pleasant autumnal weather, with Sydney’s temperature for the next two days reaching 27°C. However, there will be a large temperature contrast ahead and behind the cold front in the next few days. The image below shows forecast air temperatures around 1.5km above sea level on Wednesday morning, showing the cool airmass moving over parts of SA, VIC, Tas. Behind the cold front strong southwesterly winds will cause temperatures to plummet to around 2-3°C below average across southern Australia; Melbourne and Adelaide's temperature dropping to around 16-18°C for several days following the front. Hobart’s temperature will drop from 22°C on Tuesday to 15°C on Wednesday. Sydney’s temperature will go from 5°C above average on Wednesday to average on Thursday. The coolest air will move over Tas, bringing snow to the alpine region there. Looking ahead, temperatures will recover later this week ahead of another cold front and burst of wind power early next week.
18 Apr 2024, 3:20AM UTC
Generation gone with the wind
A weeklong stretch of low wind power was broken on Wednesday evening, as a weak cold front marched across southern Australia. The chart below shows that the National Electricity Market (NEM) has endured a weeklong stretch of low wind generation, with wind power providing around 6% of the NEM’s electricity, down from last year’s average of 13.1% (Mon, April 15 to Wed, April 17). The daily wind generation has been under 41 GWh/day for the last seven days leading up to Thursday, April 18. The calmest winds occurred on Sunday, April 14 with only 24 GWh/day produced or 4.6% of grid demand. To put this in perspective, the average daily wind generation during the last year up to Wednesday, April 17, 2024, was 71 GWh/day, according to data from the open NEM. This prolonged period of low wind was caused by blocking high pressure systems sitting over southern Australia, forcing cold fronts or strong wind further south. The image below shows the Mean Sea Level Pressure chart on the calmest day, Sunday, April 14, with high pressure stubbornly sitting over the southern half of the country. Image: Mean Sea Level Pressure Analysis at 4am AEST on Sunday, April 14. Source: Bureau of Meteorology. As we mentioned earlier today, a positive Southern Annular Mode (SAM) has led to consistent high pressure systems positioned over latitudes well south of Australia during the first three months of the year and during this week. This has kept cold fronts south of the mainland, and even south of Tasmania. READ MORE: WHAT IS THE SAM? The period of light winds ended abruptly on Wednesday evening, with WattClarity reporting that wind production peaking above 3,000 MW at 9:10pm AEST. The increased wind power on Wednesday night, was caused by a couple of factors; A weak cold front swept across the southeast on Wednesday, bringing stronger winds. A very shallow temperature inversion formed in the early evening protecting the surface from the stronger winds, but the wind turbine hub-height (150 metres above the ground) winds remained strong at around 28-38 km/h in SA. Temperature inversions form at night when the ground cools quicker than the air above it, meaning that the temperature increases with height for a thin layer of the atmosphere. During autumn, the temperature inversions are commonly shallow meaning that while the wind could be weak at the surface, the hub heights could continue to experience strong winds. A similar phenomenon could happen again tonight across southern Australia, with another cold front passing across the south. Looking ahead, light winds are expected to continue from Friday as a stubborn high-pressure system builds over the Bight until early to mid-next week.
