Severe storms raged overnight across the east coasts bringing impressive rainfall totals and damaging wind gusts. Cape Byron picked up its wettest downpours in just over 4 years receiving 115mm in showers and storms last night. Grafton saw heavy falls too with rainfall rates peaking to nearly 14mm in 10 minute during the early hours. Elsewhere, Kempsey collected a whopping 121mm, its wettest January day in at least 12 years. Across the border, the Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast didn't escape the rain either, with some strong wind gusts too. Coolangatta received 82mm along with gusts of up to 78km/h. Similarly the Gold Coast received gusts to 78km/h amongst rain amounting to 36mm. Much further north storms were more isolated, but their impacts were just as large. Townsville saw very strong gusts from an evening storm, reaching as much as 109km/h. All this thundery activity is a result of a developing trough over eastern Australia. This week the trough is likely to linger, bringing widespread showers and thunderstorms.