Massive deluge, roads closed, beaches smashed: What’s next?

Find out what’s in store for the Northern Rivers after four days of wild weather.

Satellite image from the Bureau of Meteorology showing the system over Northern NSW. CREDIT: Bureau of Meteorology

YOU might not need a kayak but you shouldn't be shoving the raincoat in the closet just yet, with future predictions of sporadic showers and thunderstorm activity to come.

That is the prediction from the Bureau of Meteorology looking ahead to the next week after the Northern Rivers was lashed by heavy and unrelenting rain for the past four days.

BOM's duty forecaster, Gabrielle Woodhouse, said rain and thunderstorms were likely to persist throughout the week.

"What we're seeing at the moment is just some showers on the radar but as we go into the rest of the we're looking at some showers persisting and also looking at thunderstorm activity," Ms Woodhouse said.

"So that will come and go a little bit and it's possible that we could see some localised heavier falls, and your catchments are quite wet at the moment so any additional rain is going to cause some localised problems like water over the roads."

You might be wondering why we had to endure four days of unrelenting rain, and the answer is, obviously, convection, La Nina and the Madden-Julian oscillation, as Ms Woodhouse explained.

"At the moment, we're looking at a lot more convection happening across the tropics going into the first half of next week and that's sort of leaking down to a trough across NSW which leads to the showers and stormy weather," Ms Woodhouse said.

"At the moment, we're in the peak of the La Nina which typically brings wetter than average conditions particularly to NSW … we've also had the Madden-Julian oscillation which is a pulse that moves through the tropics … which has helped kick off the convection."

Reminder: For emergency help in floods and storms, call the NSW State Emergency Service on 132 500. In life threatening situations call triple-0 (000) immediately.

IMPORTANT FLOOD INFORMATION:

>>> RESIDENTS TOLD TO EVACUATE AS FLOOD LEVEL RISES

>>> UPDATED: FULL LIST OF ROAD CLOSURES IN THE AREA.