Flooding rain, damaging winds and severe thunderstorms will continue to affect parts of eastern and southeastern Australia this weekend.

The interaction of Tropical Cyclone Owen and a mid-latitude low pressure system are causing one of the year's most significant outbreaks of severe weather in eastern Australia this week.

Widespread rain and severe thunderstorms affected parts of South Australia, Victoria, Tasmania, NSW and Queensland on Wednesday and Thursday.

Parts of northeast Victoria received more than 200mm of rain during these two days combined. This caused significant flash flooding and cut off part of the Hume Freeway between Wangaratta and Albury on Thursday. A rain gauge at Eldorado registered 201mm during the 48 hours to 9am on Friday, which is its heaviest two-day total in more than 120 years of records.

NSW experienced an outbreak of severe thunderstorms on Thursday as tropical moisture fed into a trough and low pressure system crossing the state. Warnings were issued for giant hail, heavy rain and destructive winds during the day, while a burst of dry blustery winds near the low caused a large dust storm over the state's west and north. This is one of many dust storms that have affected drought-weary western NSW during the last few weeks. Streets of Albury were underwater on Thursday afternoon after rain rates reached close to 10mm in 10 minutes. In Sydney, an intense thunderstorm on Thursday night dumped 43mm of rain in one hour at Holsworthy.

Queensland and the NT have been kept on high alert this week while Tropical Cyclone Owen meandered around the Gulf of Carpentaria between Tuesday and Friday. Moisture associated with Owen has helped trigger rain and storms across northern, central and eastern districts of Queensland and parts of the Top End during the last two days.

On Friday, rain and potentially severe thunderstorms will affect parts of Victoria, NSW and Queensland, while strong winds and showers lash parts of SA and Tasmania. Due to an abundance of moisture and the alignment of a low pressure trough parallel to the Great Dividing Range, very heavy rain and flash flooding is a good change on and near the ranges in NSW and southeast Queensland on Friday. Supercells are also possible in some areas.

Showers and thunderstorms are likely to linger in parts of NSW, Victoria and Tasmania on Saturday and Sunday while the mid-latitude low moves slowly towards the south. Some of these storms could become severe.

Further north, the future path of Tropical Cyclone Owen is still uncertain. However, most models indicate that it will make landfall over the western coast of Cape Yorke Peninsula on Saturday and may travel down the eastern side of Queensland during Sunday and early next week. Owen is likely to cause damaging and potentially destructive weather as it makes landfall and may then produce widespread flooding as it weakens while travelling over eastern Queensland. Flood watches have been issued for a number of river systems in Queensland, with minor to major riverine flooding possible during the next week.

Visit http://www.weatherzone.com.au/warnings.jsp for the latest weather and thunderstorm warnings and http://www.bom.gov.au/cyclone/index.shtml for the latest information on Tropical Cyclone Owen.