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Heaviest rain in months falls across western New South Wales

Parts of western New South Wales have copped a deluge over the last couple of days, and there is more unsettled weather to come across the state, according to weatherzone.com.au.

So far, the heaviest falls have gone to northern inland New South Wales. In the 24 hours to 9am today, Coonabarabran picked up 75mm, their heaviest rain since December last year. In the same time period, Coonamble received 72mm and Baradine recorded 68mm, also their heaviest rainfalls since December.

Since 9am today, Wilcannia has topped the state so far with 29mm, while Mungindi is close behind on 27mm. The rain is slowly spreading south, and is likely to extend to most districts tonight.

"A broad trough of low pressure extends from the Northern Territory down to Bass Strait. Very moist northeasterly winds to the east of this trough have resulted in widespread rain and storms across Queensland and New South Wales over the last couple of days," weatherzone.com.au meteorologist Matt Pearce said.

"The main area of rain will contract to the eastern half of the state tonight, before easing during the day tomorrow. We should see a complete clearance out to sea by early on Friday morning."

"Before that happens, we are likely to see widespread falls of 10 to 20 millimetres across northern and eastern New South Wales tonight and tomorrow. Isolated falls in the 60 to 70 millimetre range are once again possible, particularly along the western slopes."

Thunderstorms have also fired up this afternoon across northern parts of the state. These will also contract to eastern districts tonight, with Sydney a good chance of receiving an overnight or early morning rumble.

"After this system moves out into the Tasman on Friday, we are then looking at the development of another deep low pressure system over Victoria on Saturday. This has the potential to cause rain, strong winds and even some Alpine snow in New South Wales across the weekend," Pearce said.


- Weatherzone

© Weatherzone 2008

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