Most of southern and eastern Australia can expect widespread rain over the next seven days. At least 10mm should fall over most parts of southern WA, SA, Victoria, NSW and Queensland by late next week according to weatherzone.com.au, but some areas of the eastern inland are likely to receive closer to 50mm. The rain will develop as a cold pool of air surges north over WA and SA during the weekend. The rain will spread to eastern states early next week where heavy falls are possible as the cold pool interacts with humid air from the Coral Sea. The rain comes as good news with most of Australia picking up below half its average rain during the past three months. While the rain is welcome it will however put only a small dent in the huge water deficits that have built up over large parts of the country during nine years of almost continuous drought.