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An active monsoon and lows across the tropics brings scattered showers and storms. Showers and storms extend over the interior, NSW and eastern Vic. A high across the south keeps conditions mostly settled and dry, while directing heat into WA's west.
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Today, 5:37AM UTC
Satellite imagery reveals water in usually dry SA lakes
It’s not just Australia’s largest salt lake Kati-Thanda Lake Eyre that has water at the moment. South Australia has numerous other large salt lakes which are usually bone dry, but many are now filling after the extremely heavy outback rain which fell last week and into the weekend. Satellite imagery taken by NASA satellites shows the water in the SA lakes and the streams flowing down from Queensland using enhanced colours. What the false colours mean To help you interpret the enhanced or "false" colours, the NASA Worldview website explains that: Liquid water on the ground appears very dark since it absorbs in the red and the SWIR [Short-Wave [Infrared]. Sediments in water appear dark blue. Ice and snow appear as bright turquoise. Clouds comprised of small water droplets scatter light equally in both the visible and the SWIR and will appear white. These clouds are usually lower to the ground and warmer. High and cold clouds are comprised of ice crystals and will appear turquoise. Image: Satellite imagery taken on Wednesday, March 4, 2026, showing water in the Australian outback. Source: NASA Worldview. If you look carefully at the image above, you can see areas of relatively dark blue water, indicating sediments, or muddy dirt, in the water. That’s thanks to rainfall totals that exceeded 100mm in a day at numerous South Australian locations, with totals approaching 200mm in two days at some locations. For example, Hawker (Flinders forecast district, just east of Lake Torrens) and Yunta (North East Pastoral) both topped 170mm in the first two days of March. This was close to Hawker’s annual average rainfall, while it was well over half of Yunta’s. That's why surface water can be seen in normally dry salt lakes like Lake Torrens and Lake Gairdner, which lie south of Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. Image: Satellite image of Lake Gairdner in South Australia on March 4, 2026. Source: NASA. How the other lakes are different from Lake Eyre in terms of infill When Lake Eyre fills, it tends to be from water that falls outside South Australia, thanks to tributaries like the Georgina River, Diamantina River and Cooper Creek which transport floodwaters down from Queensland. The other large South Australian salt lakes tend to rely on localised heavy rainfall, which is much rarer in Australia’s driest state of SA. Looking ahead: this week's weather Meanwhile South Australia’s outback regions can expect a return to the dry weather which is typical for early autumn for the remainder of this week. Adelaide can also expect a sunny spell. It’s a different story in Queensland, where the weather will turn stormy across much of the state later this week.
Today, 1:22AM UTC
Queensland tropical cyclone and flood risk, but uncertainty is high
Heavy rain and blustery winds will hit northern Queensland later this week as a tropical low or tropical cyclone crosses the coast on Friday. There is also a risk that heavy rain will spread across central and southern parts of the state towards the end of the week, but uncertainty is higher for these areas. Tropical low heading towards northern Qld On Wednesday morning, a tropical low was located over the northern Coral Sea to the north of Willis Island. The system’s low-level circulation centre could clearly be seen on satellite images, along with large areas of convective cloud building to the west of its centre. Image: Satellite images showing a tropical low over the northern Coral Sea on Wednesday morning. Source: Weatherzone. This tropical low is currently expected to move towards northern Qld on Wednesday and Thursday before making landfall somewhere between Cooktown and Townsville on Friday. At this stage, the system should be a tropical low or weak tropical cyclone when it reaches the Qld coast. The Bureau of Meteorology gives this system a moderate risk of reaching tropical cyclone strength before landfall. Regardless of whether the system remains a tropical low or becomes a tropical cyclone, the impacts for northern Qld should include heavy rain, localised flash flooding and blustery winds as it approaches and crosses the coast. Following landfall, the low pressure system is expected to move inland, allowing rain and storms to spread over northern Qld into the weekend and possible early next week. This forecast may change in the coming days as the tropical low continues to develop. The Bureau points out that “people in the north tropical coast of Queensland should monitor forecasts for updates.” Heavy rain risk for central and southern Qld Some computer models suggest that a second low pressure system could track towards the south near the Qld coast later this week. If this does happen, rain and storms could also spread over central and southeast Qld from Friday into the weekend, with the potential for moderate to heavy falls. It’s important to note that there is a high amount of disagreement between computer models regarding where this low will move. Some models keep it off the coast while tracking towards the south, while others have the low sitting closer to the coast. This disagreement makes it difficult to predict where and how much rain will fall. At this stage, there is a possibility of rain and storms spreading over central and southeast Qld from Friday into the weekend. However, there isn’t enough confidence in the forecast to say which areas will see heavy rain and flooding. Image: Forecast accumulated rain during the next seven days, according to the ECMWF-HRES model. Source: Weatherzone. Anyone living in central and southeast Qld should stay up to date with the latest forecasts and warnings in the coming days for the most accurate information.
03 Mar 2026, 6:22AM UTC
10 days of record-breaking inland rain
The unusually long-lasting low pressure system that has delivered huge rainfall totals to inland and even desert regions of Australia is finally starting to dissipate. The low is currently centred over New South Wales, having travelled from the Northern Territory into South Australia before moving east – all the while dragging tropical moisture southwards from waters north of the mainland. The low continues to generate steady falls this Tuesday in parts of central New South Wales. Between 9am and 5pm, Bathurst received 38.8mm, on the back of 44.8mm yesterday, which made this March the first month in half a year that the Central Tablelands city has exceeded its average monthly rainfall. But today’s rainfall figures are just a very small taste of some of the phenomenal totals from this system, some of which are worth revisiting before the system breaks up midweek. Image: Australian rainfall deciles for February 2026, illustrating how many outback areas had their wettest February on record, or close to it. Source: BoM. The wet outback Last Monday, huge falls were recorded around Cameron Corner, the place where the NSW, SA and Qld borders meet, including 120.6mm in a day at Winnathee in NSW – a location just about as close to Alice Springs as it is to Sydney. Illustrating the vast area of normally dry country covered by this system, last Tuesday Mount Isa (Qld) and Alice Springs (NT) both notched February rainfall records – Mount Isa for total rain accumulation, and Alice Springs for the number of rain days. Also on Tuesday, the Nappa Merrie cattle station in southwest Queensland’s Channel Country received 169 mm, which was close to the area’s annual average rainfall in a single day. Outback flooding was well underway in four states (Qld, SA, NT, NSW) by this stage. By the middle of last week, it was bucketing down in Birdsville, with 93.2mm in a day. That was the iconic outback town’s heaviest day of February rainfall this century and almost 60% of the annual average. Image: 12-hour combined radar and water vapour loop showing heavy rainfall on Wednesday, February 25, 2026 in the area near Birdsville. Source: Weatherzone. Towards the end of the week and into the weekend, the action shifted to South Australia and then to Victoria. Daily rainfall totals of more than 100mm were recorded at several outback locations in South Australia, while the Victorian regional city of Mildura saw almost 150mm on the first two days of March. Its annual average is just 285.6mm. Rainfall deficiencies eradicated Many of the areas mentioned in this story – especially in SA and Vic – have experienced long-term rainfall deficiencies. Compare the following two maps. The first shows Australian rainfall deciles in the 12 months to the end of January 2026. Image: Australian rainfall deciles in the 12 months to the end of January 2026. Source: BoM. The next map shows Australian rainfall deciles in the 12 months to the end of February 2026. The red area (indicating rainfall deficiencies) has noticeably shrunk, although it’s worth noting that some of the weekend’s heavy SA rain and most of the Victorian rain technically fell in March, so is not recorded yet on this chart. Expect much more blue in a month’s time. Image: Australian rainfall deciles in the 12 months to the end of February 2026. Source: BoM. Meanwhile showers could persist for much of this week in eastern New South Wales, while showers will continue or increase in large parts of Queensland. The fresh burst of eastern Australian rainfall will be due to the increasing influence of Tasman Sea or Coral Sea moisture and associated low pressure systems, rather than the existing low over NSW.