At 4:00 am AEDT today, the southern hemisphere farewelled the sun as it crossed the equator and moved into the northern hemisphere. The Equinox, officially marks the start of the new season (Spring) across the northern half of the planet, a new season (in this case Autumn) which officially began in the land Down Under at the beginning of the month. Coincidentally or not, a set of troughs across the east and west of the country will deepen over the next few days bringing widespread thunderstorm activity across both regions. So far this morning, areas east of Melbourne and Sydney have seen thunderstorm activity during the early hours of the morning, with a severe thunderstorm warning currently in place for eastern Victoria and northern Queensland. Today in Victoria, the focus of the thunderstorms will be with the front as it pushes east. Thunderstorms are likely east of Echuca and Melbourne with severe storms likely over the North East and Eastern Gippsland this afternoon. Widespread showers and storms will roam across NSW and QLD over the coming days too as the trough deepens. In NSW today, thunderstorms are most likely over the central and southern ranges extending to the South West Slopes and the Riverina. Further north, in the Sunshine State, thunderstorms are likely north of about the the Central Coast-Whitsundays and Richmond with severe thunderstorms likely to bring heavy rainfall along the coastal fringe from Cooktown to Townsville. Although thunderstorm activity will clear from Victoria later this weekend, NSW and QLD will see a period of active convective activity over the next seven days as the trough lingers over eastern inland areas of the continent. At this point, Thursday next week is looking to be quite wet across both states with significant rainfall hindering the development of storms. Summer 2013-2014 is gone and although we are likely to experience a warm spell in late March/early April across the southeast, Autumn is finally here.