|
The graphics and statistical information on this page fill gradually as they become available, with some not available until the next day.
The page is updated every 30 minutes at about 20 and 50 minutes past the hour.
For weather news as it breaks that is tagged and organised, use the links on the Weather and Climate Media Reports page.
 Good rain falls in northern NSW and SE QLD
The large area of cloud and rain (AWN 27 June) continued its steady eastward movement yesterday and today giving some steady light to moderate rain across southern QLD and northern NSW, with heavier showers and thunderstorm falls on the northern slopes and tablelands in NSW today.
Many places on the Northern Tablelands and Slopes have had 15 to 40mm, with an area between Guyra and Inverell seeing between 70 and 80mm in the gauges over the 36 hours to 21.00 this evening. Hunter Springs on the western side of the Barrington Tops had 99mm in that time. In the 24 hours to 09.00, Armidale City (Tea Tree Nursery) gauged 43.6mm, a June record in 20 years, while Box Point near Guyra had 30.0mm, the highest since the station opened in 1992.
The Bureau's rainfall map for week to 09.00 today shows the way the rainband has slowly sliced diagonally across the whole country. Since 09.00 today, the rain has picked up as it moved east, giving a strip from Taroom west of the ranges in QLD into far NE NSW, including the North Coast, 10 to 25mm in the 12 hours to 21.00. For many inland places, the rain has been the best in three months.
 Cold days now with very cold nights to follow
This same broad strip across the middle of Australia has been seeing unusually cold days while the southeastern third of the country is preparing for very cold nights.
The cloudband bringing the rain has given some very low maximum temperatures in a diagonal band from the NW coast of WA to central and northern coastal parts of NSW as the BoM map showing departure from normal temperatures for yesterday shows. Yesterday's high of 13.6° at Alice Springs made it the coolest June day in 6 years and 6.2° below the average while in Sydney's west the mercury only reached 12.1° at Penrith Lakes, 6.0 below average. Compare that with St George QLD, just north of the cloudband, which basked in a tropical 26.3°, its highest June temperature since 2004 which is remarkable for so late in the month. For St George, that came to a stop today when the cloudband moved across and the town's maximum was only 16.0°.
Pushing up from the deep south, however, is a strong cold change which began delivering snow during today in TAS, where it is expected to fall down to the 300m level tonight. The change swept through Adelaide and Melbourne around midday, pushing another surge of cold air into the continent. This will produce widespread exceptionally cold nights across southeastern states and as far north as SE QLD when the skies clear and the next high pressure system rapidly moves in.
The Antarctic origin of this burst of cold air can be seen in this NOAA backward trajectory map (via BoM Tasmania) which traces the path of the cold airmass over the past 2½ days. A further cold front is expected next week, meaning that at long last southern Australia appears to be breaking the grip of constant high pressure and getting into more normal winter westerlies.
| 
