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A low is generating showers & a few storms across WA's south. A front is bringing cooling winds & showers to Tas. Showers & the odd storm along the north Qld coast & across the northern tropics as moist winds feed a trough. Dry & hot across SA and the interior.
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Today, 3:09AM UTC
No significant rain relief for parched SA
There's no shortage of images showing how desperately dry southern and eastern parts of South Australia have been lately. For example, here’s a picture of a rural landscape near Laura, about 200km north of Adelaide, taken on February 20. Not a drop of rain has been recorded since there since a meagre 1mm in mid-January this year. Image: The landscape at Laura near Port Pirie in South Australia's Mid North forecast district. Source: Gillian Fennell. While the close-up view of the desiccated landscape paints a bleak picture, the countryside looks no less parched when viewed from space. This is the satellite view of southeastern SA and western and central Vic, taken on Thursday afternoon. Image: So brown it’s almost grey. The patches of green are forested land. To date in 2025 (as of Friday, March 14), Adelaide, has had just 23.5mm of rain. While summer and early autumn are traditionally a dry time in Australia’s driest capital city, this is still only a third of the average annual rainfall to this point of the year. Indeed, Adelaide just had its driest summer in 33 years, yet its rainfall deficiency stretches much further back. For example, in 2024: Just 346.6mm of rain fell, which was just under two-thirds of the annual average of 526mm. Only one month in 2024 (June) saw above-average rainfall, and not by much. Every other month was much drier than usual. And this is not just about Adelaide. As you can see on the chart below, virtually the whole of SA has had below-average rainfall to start the year, while some areas were very much below average. Image: Two-monthly rainfall deciles for Australia for Jan and Feb 2025. The chart also shows that parts of western Tasmania saw the lowest rainfall on record. It’s no coincidence that numerous serious bushfires occurred in that area in February, sone of which burned temperate rainforest which hadn’t seen a fire in recent memory. The situation in Tasmania and western Victoria (where there have also been severe bushfires in recent months) illustrates that the current prolonged dry spell is far from just a South Australian story. But SA is definitely the state with the largest area affected. Meanwhile the ABC reported this week that most of the Fleurieu Peninsula and Adelaide Hills – two areas which are among the wettest parts of SA – have gone more than 100 days without a daily rain event that delivered a fall of 10mm or more. And in its most recent drought statement, the BoM reported that for southern Australia (encompassing parts of WA, SA, Vic and Tas) "The rainfall deficiency period starting in April 2023 reflects the impacts of climate change." Will there be any reprieve with the rain due this weekend? Unfortunately for South Australians, the heaviest rain associated with a cold front due this weekend will fall in Tasmania and southern Victoria. Adelaide could see up to 5mm on Sunday while places in SA's far southeast like Mount Gambier and Coonawarra could see up to 15mm, but that’s about the best that locals can hope for before another dry week sets in.
Today, 1:00AM UTC
Heaviest rain in years soaks southern WA as storms slam Perth
A cut off low pressure system has delivered the heaviest rain in more than a decade in parts of southwestern Australia and unleashed severe thunderstorms in Perth. The animation below shows rain and thunderstorms hitting WA’s South West Land Division on Thursday. This outbreak of wet and stormy weather was caused by a low pressure system and associated low pressure trough interacting with a stream of tropical moisture. Image: Composite satellite, radar and lightning strikes showing rain and thunderstorms over WA on Thursday. While the most widespread rain fell inland over the Wheatbelt, some of the most intense storms occurred in and around Perth. During the 23 hours to 8 am AWST on Friday, widespread rainfall totals of 30 to 60mm had been recorded over a broad area stretching from Wongan Hills in the north to Laverton in the east and Albany in the south. A few places picked up more than 80 mm in this period, including 106 mm at Bevan Street in Albany and 82 mm at Albany Airport, which was the airport’s wettest day in 13 years. Image: Observations History on the Weatherzone app for Albany, WA. While rainfall totals were lower in the 10 to 30 mm range for Perth, the city was battered by intense thunderstorms on Thursday. More than 300,000 lightning strikes were detected within 400 km of Perth between Thursday morning and Friday morning. Some of these storms were severe, with wind gusts reaching 113 km/h at 2pm AWST in Gooseberry Hill in Perth’s east. Rain and storms will continue to affect a broad area of WA on Friday before mostly contracting to the state’s north on the weekend.
Today, 12:07AM UTC
Intense burst of autumn heat to scorch NSW, Victoria and SA
A sweltering inland air mass will filter across southeastern Australia on Sunday, bringing scorching autumn heat. This heat will be drawn from the Australian interior by a broad low pressure trough and cold front crossing the country’s southeast, leading to increasingly hot temperatures into the weekend. The hottest temperatures are expected on Saturday over the far southwest of NSW, where the mercury will hit the low 40s, with heatwave conditions extending into South Australia and Victoria as well. Image: Low-Intensity to Severe Heatwave conditions forecast across South Australia, northern Victoria and much of NSW between Thursday and Saturday. As this intense heat edges east into the more densely populated parts of eastern NSW on Sunday, energy demand should soar across the state. Hot and relatively dry northwesterly winds should prevent cooling seabreezes across much of the Sydney Basin, as well as coastal regions south from the Hunter down to the South Coast. This subduing of the seabreeze on Sunday afternoon will allow temperatures to rise to the mid to high 30s, possibly reaching the low 40s in western Sydney. The image below shows hot northwesterly winds continuing into the late afternoon on Sunday. Image: Forecast temperatures and winds at 5pm AEDT on Sunday, March 16, showing hot northwesterly winds across the Greater Sydney region. This surge of heat on Sunday comes after very warm days on Friday and Saturday, forecast to reach the low to mid 30s. Seabreezes will feature both days, helping bring some daytime cooling relief, however the added humidity will make it feel 2 to 4°C warmer than the actual temperature. Image: Daily Forecast on the Weatherzone app for Sydney, NSW, on Sunday. Valid as at 11:45am AEDT on Friday, March 14, 2025. With these muggy daytime conditions, night time relief will become increasingly difficult as the humidity limits overnight cooling. Night time temperatures in the low to mid 20s will make recovery from this heat increasingly difficult, with severe heatwave conditions extending into Sunday for eastern NSW. Image: Severe Heatwave conditions forecast to spread over southeast NSW into Sunday. Unfortunately, much of Sunday night will remain very warm in the high 20s until about midnight for Sydney. Relief is in sight on Monday, as a vigorous cold front sends a much needed cooling southerly change up the South Coast on Sunday evening, reaching Sydney in the early hours of Monday, and crossing the rest of eastern NSW during the remainder of Monday. Image: Forecast temperatures and winds at 11pm AEDT on Sunday, March 16, showing heat across northern and central NSW, with the surge of colder southerly winds moving over southern NSW. The southerly change will cause temperatures to drop into Monday with a forecast maximum in the mid 20s across the Sydney basin early next week.